Warrior's Breath
by Mako Streak
Summary: After the death of his parents,thirteenyearold Gukko barely can feed all 7 of his siblings. But his dream of nuturing the Warrior blood within him never fades... Read to find out what compelled him to become an evil Tyrant of Things are different now.
1. Default Chapter

He checked the price posted outside the baker's again.

_80 gil?_ he thought frantically. _The price went up again! Now I can only get one loaf... And I promised Saki she would be able to go to sleep full tonight... Let's see... _He thought for a while, trying to divy up half a loaf among six small children and two preteens, including himself as the olderof the preteens.

"Ah, Gukko, you're back again," the baker said. "Two loaves again?"

The boy shook his head. "Only one."

"One? You always get two, though."

Gukko shook his head. "Price went up."

Pity crossed the man's face. "Well, I guess I can sell you a bit of the stale bread for a discount..."

"Really? That would be wonderful, sir!" he exclaimed.

"Okay. They're kinda hard though," the baker warned. "Enjoy. Your sister might like the roses the florist got. They're 5 gil each."

_Yes,_ he thought. _Hejaat would have loved the roses... But 5 gil is a tad bit..._ "Sorry, no. But thank you sir," Gukko said politely, restraining his urges to nab the bag of gil sitting on the counter. Those were the baker's tips from his customers. They were enough to feed the whole family for two whole days... But stealing right under someone's nose wasn't his type. He left the bakery.

-

"Big bro's back,"Sabina annouced, nibbling the hem of the threadbare robes. They were actually a clan's Hempen Robe, the robe that had been passed down from a pitying White Mage to Hejaat to Messarato Sakiand finally to Sabina. By now, it wasn't much of a robe, just a patch of cloth with sleeves patched one too many times on. But Sabina had never worn anything comparable to the robes ever since the day... He tried not to remember it.

He could recall his mother Rochelle clearly, but the part that he remembered most was her warmth and her love. He was convinced that his mother was the loveliest creature alive. She was constantly flirted with when she, Father, and the clan went to pubs, until Gukko proudly proclaimed her title as "Mother."Unlike many mothers, no matter how many children came, even with the eighth baby Sunny, she always had time for him. No nannies, no help from servants- she always cared for everyone.

Now, Gukko had only seen his mother fight once. But that once was enough to know why Mother was the World Class Champion six times in a row, and would have been sixteen probably too if Saki and Hejaat had not been born.

Father was a strong, tall man with a melancholy, handsome face. To Ivalice, he was the Fighter from the Ether, to Rochelle, he was her beloved husband, but to Gukko, he was Father and his hero. Often times he was dispatched, being the trusted enforcer. The times his head was bashed in, or the times he was captured or lost in the middle of nowhere, his best Paladin friend Eagle always boughtin news. Eagle was a good loyalfriend, a bit too chauvanistic, but always true to friends.

They had a house back then. The most Gukko needed to worry about was hisnext term at school, and the least they needed to think about was what to do when Sunny decided to wear her fake fairy wings.

Their clan was topping off the charts big time, and was still doing so by the time Gukko, their first child, was born unexpectedly. He had came as an accident, a result of a long Happy Hour. But as child of the two most promising clanners...

His mother'sunusual crystal blue eyes sparkled to him as he told her his fears.

"Mommy, why do you and Daddy have to go? And why did Eagle say that it was dangerous?"

"Gukko, sweetie, there are bad men out there. The bad men have to be sent to prison, Gukko. And Mommy and Daddy and Friends are going to go beat them up and give them to the Judges. Then, we'll be back."

"But why's it dangerous?" Gukko persisted.

Mother sighed and jiggled him on her knee gently, her sword gleaming softly in the lamplight of their home. "Mommy and Daddy will not be safe there. Mommy and Daddy will not be protected there by the Judges. Many people have never returned. But Mommy and Daddy and Friends will come back safe and sound, don't worry." She pressed her cheek to his gently. "We'll come back."

"Promise?" he had asked.

She laughed gently. Now he knew that the soft expression her face shifted momentarily to was regret. "Promise. We'll come back."

Two nights later, Eagle had came to their door, his handsome face torn off and practically half his body ripped apart.With him was a strange boy. "Gukko, you will go join Mother and Father someday. Someday, I promise. But I want you to meet my son Raven. Can he stay for a while?"

Gukko nodded, but all he could think was _How am I supposed to feed everyone?_

"You don't know how much this means to me. I thank you greatly," Eagle had said and fell backwards with a groan. He spased, his sword twitching too, and stopped moving.

-

"Big Brother, do we eat today?" Saki asked eagerly. "We didn't eat yesterday, and I'm kinda hungry... And there's something wrong with Sunny."

Gukko handed her the loaves of bread, one edible, the other stale with a touch of mold. "Don't eat the fuzzy part. It can make you sick," he told her.


	2. Night

Sunny was laying on their shared bed, sweating and shivering. "Big Bro?" she asked softly, her little head turning. She was, as far as he was concerning, human, despite having a viera mother and all-viera sisters. Very rare indeed. "I don't feel well..."

Gukko wished that they had their old house back. Everyone had full bellies, education, and their own rooms... But after Momma and Father died... Gukko had discovered that although full of squalor and poverty, the poorer district was much cheaper.

"Sunny, what's wrong?" he asked softly, stroking her brown-black hair softly. Her chubby-but-gaunt face smiled softly. Under a richer life, she could have been the cutest princess...

Hejaat's ashen face looked up from the bedside. "Gukko, I'm sorry, but I think's it's the Yittiees,"

Gukko's breath froze. _The Yittiees?_ Anywhere but here, the Yittiees were no big deal... But medication was beyong him currently... There was only one solution.

"Sunny, you're going to go on a great adventure. You'll be full and happy and wonderful, Sunny. You'll train as a warrior..." Gukko whispered softly to his baby sister her adventures to come.

"But I want to be a Summoner," she protested.

"You'll be the greatest Summoner ever," he assured her, smoothing her soft curls. "Someday, we'll meet again. And we'll be together again, I promise," he whispered softly. Tonight would be the last night he would see Sunny, at least for many longs years.

-

He carried the sick, sweating child to the pub. "Sir?" he called softly. Everyone told him that he was a handsome little boy with an intense face. Everyone said that he was the best-looking. But no one had ever said that he was more than a pretty boy and a warrior... But he was a brother. A big brother, the only one caring for his family other than his best friend Raven,who was always on long jobs that bought home enough gil to feed and care for them for weeks on end. Raven, whose father had trained him on Dispatch missions... Raven, who saved up all the spare change he accumulated from the sidewalks, since all his jobs went into feeding everyone... Gukko regretted not demanding that his father taught him what Raven's father had taught Raven.

"Sir?" he called. The pubmaster appeared.

"Yes? Oh! Your sister- what's-"

"Do you mind if I ask around a bit? For... A special favor?" he asked.

"I see. Medicine. Okay," the man said.

Gukko had something different in mind. Medicine wouldn't help now.

"Sir," Gukko said softly to someone who seemed to be a clan leader. The whole large clan went silent, and a Summoner knelt down next to Sunny.

"It's not the Yipiees," she said softly. "It's a new strain. The medicine's awfully expensive, and we can't hand it out, I'm sorry," the Summoner said softly.

Gukko shook his head. "Do you reconize me?" he asked, tilting his face upwards.

The Clan Leader, a burly Fighter, crinkled his brow. "You look like a legendary Figher... But he died years ago..."

Gukko nodded. "I'm Akuu's son," he said. "This is my sister Sunny."

The whole clan was shocked into silence. Gukko knew that it was awful to see the childrenof one of history's greatest warriors so down.

"What are you asking, ssson?" a bangaa asked. "I'm sssorry, but we can't give you the medicine."

Gukko shook his head again. "Father was one of the greatest warriors. And Mommawas an Assassin, but she has the bloodlines of the greatest mages.I was wondering... Can you adopt her into your clan? I have six other sibling I take care of..." His desperate voice trailed off.

For a moment, there was silence. Then the Summoner spoke. "I'm the only Mage here, Shamual, and I believe that Sunny can grow to be one of the greatest. She already has the blood, and I can sense great talent."

The Clan Leader considered it for a moment, then said, "All right, but _you_ have to take care of her. We'll give her the medicine and she'll be one of us." Shamual nodded. "I'm sorry to see a family separated like this, but I know it's necessary sometimes. Don't worry, we're a good clan. We'll take good care of her."

Gukko handed Sunny over to the Summoner, who coddled the sick child to her breast. "Aren't you a sweetie?" she murmured.

But Gukko only bowed and thanked them greatly until the leader blushed.

"Don't worry," the motherly Summoner repeated. "She will be my daughter now."

-

Well... This is the first non after-game I've done. But I hope you'll enjoy it!

-MakoStreak


	3. Chapter Three of Absolute MATH HOMEWORK!

"You guys," Gukko said, sitting in front of all his siblings. "I have something serious to say- Sunny's not coming back."

Saki began to bawl, setting off a chain reaction.

Hejaat gripped Gukko's throat, magnifying his voice over the roar of the crying siblings.

"Sunny has gone to train to be a Summoner. We will all meet again, I promise," he called as the sniffing subsided.

"Everyone get to bed," Hejaat commanded before the crying could start anew.

-

"Everyone says that we're a waste," Hejaat sighed, setting down the cup of debris-infested water.

Gukko looked up from where he was leafing through the torn brochure he found in the gutter. "Huh? A waste of what?"

"Talent." Hejaat took a sip of water. "If they think so badly of us, why don't they lend a hand? And what are you looking at?" She craned her neck, trying tosee the other side of the Nerson's Produce and Farming Supplies crate. "Gukko, you know that we can't..." her voice trailed off as she saw the brochure.

Gukko scanned the title again. _Clan Center Inoformation Kit. Enrollment forms included._ "I know... But I can still dream-"

"Greetings, friends, I've returned to annouce that my ass is back here and my mission was a success!" a voice called from the doorway (Actually, what _was_ a doorway a very long time ago... Now just... A way.). Raven strode in and landed a sack of gil and an ornate sword onto the table. "Enough for one month, if we're careful," he added.

Hejaat smiled. "You're back! Tell us about it!"

Gukko smiled broadly. "Tell us! What happened, from the beginning?"

Raven smiled again. "When I got there, the beehive was much worse. It was as big as-" he spread his arms out, "this! And remember when Daddy told everyone about the time when your Father got sent on a mission, and he came back red, puffy, and stung from the War Wasps? Well, he told me something about using smoke to shut them up. So I kinda assumed-"

"You ASSUMED?" Hejaat and Gukko roared at once.

"Yep. Worked like a charm! Unlike Sir Aukku!" Raven nodded. "So I got my reward. It'll sell all right."

Gukko eyed the blade. It wasn't made for the touch Engagement work, more of the ceremonial type, but it would do fine in the hands of a trained Fighter, or Gladiator, or Mog Knight...

"Gukko, I think you're drooling," Hejaat observed.

Gukko hastily wiped the spit off his chin. "Um... Well, we better all get our rest," he said awkwardly.

Hejaat smiled amusedly.

-

"Boy, hurry up! You won't get anywhere at your sssnail passse!" the sailor yelled.

Gukko heaved the crate full of perfume and body oil back onto his back. "Okay, sir, sorry," he called, shoving the crate onto the cargo hull and pushing it from there.

-

"Look, we know you're just a lwitty bwitty kiddy, so we'll go easy on you, but give us the bag," the man said. Hejaat tightened her hold on the bag of a few gil. Obviously they thought it was of value.

"Nope," Hejaat said. Normal mages never used spells until they learned them. But Hejaat just made up her own. "Good bye," she said and waved as a cloud of burning particles appeared between her and the thieves. She hopped away, hopefully safe... But she would never know the side-effects of a non-standard spell... She merely hoped it didn't have anything to do with blue lumps and red polka dots like last time.

-

I feel so fortunate now, coo... I have a good life, and I love my life... I'll update soon!

-MakoStreak


	4. What'll happen?

Gukko fingered his day's earnings, mostly tips. Enough to buy two loaves, if one was a stale again... He breathed out in a sigh.

"Excuse me son, would you happen to be Gukko?" a voice asked.

There was an extremely tall Fighter with two swords behind him.Behind the Fighter stood what appeared to be a whole clan- a Dragoon, a Summoner, a Red Mage, and agang of other warriors and mages. Gukko felt a pang of envy.

"Well, yes sir, I am..."

"Well, Sir Aukku's son, eh? I'm very shocked you aren't in a clan, much less not even a Fighter," he commented.

Gukko forced himself to look down and not fume. "I have to support my siblings, Sir. Can't enroll."

"Well, name's Sir Fey." Snickers from the clan as the Fighter glared. "Not my fault my Momma wa obsessed with those lil' fairy lights!"

"Pleasure to meet you," he mumbled, not extending a hand. He knew he must be a sorry sight, hair all tusseled, dirty, sweaty, ungroomed...

"Well, my clan and I can get you into the Clan Business," Sir Fey continued. "We would like you to become one of us and train to be a Fighter, with your bloodlines and your heritage behind you."

Hisheart began to pound. A chance! A chance to become a Fighter! But there was a problem... "I'm sorry sir, I have to take care of my family."

Sir Fey laughed. "That's no problem. We can provide financial help for you- we're a well-to-do clan."

Gukko's heart began to pound. This was his chance...!

"Sir, I thank you with all my soul," he said, bowing. "But I need to talk to my sister... Would you come with me?"

"Sure thing, kid," the Fighter said, motioning for his clan to follow.

This was his lucky break!

-

Saki opened the door. "Big bro- ah!" Sheshrunk back at the sight of Sir Fey.

"Erm..."

"Saki, it's okay. They're friends," he called. "Saki?"

The little viera's head poked before the door. "Come in?" she asked politely.

The Summoner laughed lightly and her eyes sparkled. Saki blushed and ducked backwards, calling, "Hejaat, someone at the door! Big Bro and Big People!"

-

Raven stared dubiously at the clan, who barely fit inside the small home. The Gladiator in the back kept on bumping his head on the ceiling.

"Well, ssson, I know it ssseemss like- Ouch! Essscussse me. I know it ssseemsss like like a ssscam, but- Ouch! Sssorry. Okay! Whatever, you tell."

"Do we look like scammers?" the Summoner, how was playing with Saki and Marlene, said.

"Nope," Raven admitted. "Well, I don't see why Gukko can't go, aside from the fact the we'll miss him a lot."

"You can alwaysss come back and visssit- Ouch!"

Hejaat looked thoughtful for a moment. "It _is_ a waste if you don't go, Gukko. So it's my point to say that you should."

But the littler ones just looked up with teary eyes, wondering what would happen...

-Makostreak.


	5. Good day

"Gukko, do you need to say good bye and all? We can come tomorrow," Sir Fey offered.

Gukko nodded, his head still spinning. "Yes, sir, that would be nice..."

Sir Fey smiled broadly. "I'll let you in on something, son, but me and your father were friends back then. We had the same Fighting instructor and went to the same Academy."

-

"Big Bro, why do you have to go?" Raine asked again.

Gukko sighed. "Don't worry, I'll come back," he promised. He still felt a tad bit guilty about leaving everyone behind, but...

"Hey, everyone, get some sleep," Hejaat said. With the money that they had received from the clan, they would be able to eat. Hejaat would recieve the payments once every month, enough to support them better than Gukko had with his little jobs.

"Well, you'll visit, right?" Raven asked, smiling. Gukko knew that he was slightly envious. But maybe someday they would save enough for him to go into a clan...

-

"Ready to go?" Sir Fey asked again. His girlfriend, the Sniper, leaned against his shoulder.

Gukko nodded, barely able to speak. They had chosen to leave early in the morning so the little ones would not make such a huge fuss.

"Ready then," the Sniper echoed. "Let's go."

"Good bye," Raven and Hejaat called.

-


	6. Operation Trehouse Barbeque

"Erm, Sir Fey where are we going?" Gukko asked innocently. "And am I expected to do anything?"

Sir Fey shook his head. "Well, we're reporting to our head," he explained. "Have to register you as one of our warriors now."

"The Clan Center?"

Sir Fey shook his head. "No, my brother Gussom. He leads all of us little clans here and there. Once a year, we all round up there and report, but we need to register you. So you'll be safe"

Gukko refrained from asking safe from what.

After a few more hours of walking, they came to a marina at the edge of the forest, more or a small, hidden harbor actually. There were small ships and boats all along the wharf, but what really caught his eye was a huge, magnificent, reddish ship

with the name the "Redwings." Sir Fey ran up the gangplank and knocked on a door. The door opened and a pretty viera with big eyes and soft, wispy hair peeked out. "Yes? Are you here to see Gussom?" Sir Fey nodded. "Hello Freya, nice to see you again. Is he busy"

Freya nodded. "Well, we were in bed, but... I suppose that he'll get dressed to see you. How long has it been"

"Two years"

Freya disappeared back inside the ship. Gukko heard her talking to someone, saying "Come on Gussom, your own brother's here!" and "Hurry up"

The door opened again. "Come on in," Freya said. A man half dressed as a Paladin and half dressed as some sort of mage came out and smiled broadly. Family resemblance between him and Sir Fey was extremely obvious.

"Good to see you again, bro, but why you here"

Sir Fey pushed Gukko forward. "This is my apprentice now. I came to register him." After a few more minutes of talking,Gussom opened the door as the clan filed in behind Sir Fey. The inside of the boat was mostly deserted and very much like a strange home.Gussom lead them to a room where a Gladiator was mumbling and filing away papers. "This is what happens when you try to betray the clan,"Gussom said with serious eyes. "A sentence for four moons of paperworking for light offenses, more for more offense."

"Really?" What could be so bad about papers?

"Naw, it's just a joke. Tameul here just 'volunteered' for it. Tammy, we need to register this little guy here,"Gussom said to Tameul, who heaved out more papers and began to write with a long, yellow quill. "Name?"  
-

By the time the registration was done, the sun was already setting in the sky. "Well, it's evening, or as they say back in Rosettas, someone kicked shit out of the sun,"Gussom commented to Sir Fey, who laughed out loud.

"Huh? Aren't you from Ivalice?" Gukko demanded.

Gussomshook his head. "Oh no, us from this dumpster? No, we're from a country. Rosettas. Wonderful place, if they weren't trying to cut off our heads every time we turn a corner"

"Why"

"Don't ask so many questions! We're just very special, and they're jealous, probably," Sir Fey said. "Nice seeing you again, but we have Sphrom to take over- er, I mean get to, before sundown. Bye"  
-

"Sphrom before sundown," Sir Fey reported. "Well, I can say we made good time, Rochelle, what do you think?"  
_Rochelle? She has the same name as my mother!_ "Well, little Gukko made it all this way without knowing anyone's names," Rochelle commented, smiling lightly. "Well, you know Fey already, and I'm Rochelle. The Summoner over there is Haylie, erm... The big Gladiator's Douglas..." She went on to describe the Hunter as Henry, the Blue Mage as Taylor, the Illusionist as Penelope, the Mog Knight as Larry, and the Gadgeteer/Juggler hybrid as Leroy.

_Hejaat sat down and sighed. "Well, it's not the same without Gukko, I guess," she commented sadly, her twenty-year-old body barely fitting the chair. Raven, much older, sighed. "He's in a better place now." "Yes, Ivalice is such a pea patch compared to the Ether"  
"Pity Gukko died too young, with so much ahead of him..."_

"Gukko, wake up," Haylie said. "Gukko"  
He woke with a start. "I'm not dead!" he screamed as Haylie back up.

"Gukko!"  
"Sorry, bad dream."

"Swing you sword around... Good, but keep it straight," Sir Fey said, adjusting the blade. Gukko felt awkward sparring with the older, bigger, more experienced Fighter, and the blade still seemed too heavy and off-balanced in his grip. "That's fine, Gukko." They had practiced for two hours straight. "We're done for today. As soon as you get the basics down, then you can join us in engagements," Sir Fey promised.

"Amazing," Sir Fey commented. "Huh?" It was impossible to hear anything over the loud roar of the pub.

"Nevermind, Gukko!" he shouted. "You've learned all the basics in one moon!"

"I kicked _what_?"

"You're ready to fight!" Rochelle sat down beside Sir Fey. "Hey, I got a mission from the boss," she explained. "Another raid, and us being the Ivalice Sect, we get it."

"Raid?"

"A term, Gukko," Sir Fey explained. "Gussom is sending us on a mission. Ah-hem!" The whole clan gathered around him like story time. "Okay, here it goes:

_Fey, I'm trusting you and your clan as our Ivalice Team to fulfill the following needs:  
Mission: Operation Treehouse Barbeque_

_Objective: Seize Muscadet_

_You are to set the town of Muscadet aflame in order to provide a proper diversion for another mission." _Sir Fey continued to read exactly how to set the whole town ablaze. When he was done, he asked the infamous question: "Any questions"

Gukko raised his hand. "Isn't this illegal?"

Sir Fey shrugged. "Ivalice is part of a much bigger plan, Gukko. Now, if you're going to chicken out, we're going to have to send you back to where you came from."

That was not an option for Gukko. "I-I'm coming"

"Good, knew you wouldn't let us down." Sir Fey grinned broadly. "Anyways, Ivalice is part of a much bigger plan, Gukko. This is only part of the plan, whichGussom won't tell us until later."

Being the stealthiest, quickest one, Rochelle was sent out first to start Operation Treehouse Barbeque, not a bad choice considering that she, Haylie, andDouglas were the only ones who could see in the dark comfortable. All of a sudden, a soft, arcane birdcall whistled through the air. Gukko, if he squinted, could see Haylie bend her head in prayer and whisper something.

A lash of fire whipped out of nowhere licked a tree, shielded from the sleeping inhabitants by a veil of darkness made by Penelope.

There was a burning smell. The fire had begun- now for phase two. An airship, disguised by leaves and twigs and driven by Leroy, hovered above. No one would be able to catch the stealthy airship in the darkness, lest they were actively looking for one.

"Hurry, kupo!" Leroy yelled from the airship. From the other side of the town and the center, the others would be setting it ablaze a little at a time. Gukko poured oil from the oilskin down the tree he sat in, struck a flint, and grabbed onto the ladder. Once inside the airship, the town of Muscadet and the forest surrounding it was beginning to glow in irregular patches.

"We all here?" Sir Fey called.

"No!" Taylor screamed. "Where's Henry?"

"I thought I saw him grab hold of the ladder!" Leroy yelled. "I'm going," Rochelle said firmly. "But I need someone small, sorry Larry you aren't fast enough... Gukko, you're coming too."

She opened the latch and swung the ladder down to the burning town. "Okay, Gukko, stay low. Hold your breath as we go through the top part, and yell if you see him. And whatever you do, _don't inhale the smoke._"

"But how do I know if it's him?" Gukko yelled. The airship was reaching their destination at Henry's post.

"He's the only one out here!" Rochelle yelled. "We're out past curfew!"

"Oh."

"Here we go!" They plunged into the thick layer of smoke.

The smoky haze hung in the air like a shield, almost solid but untouchable, intangible. But it was choking at the same time... Gukko landed cleanly and looked to see if Rochelle had. She landed a few paces away. "He's around here somewhere!" she yelled, the damp cloth over her mouth muffling speech. Gukko adjusted his own and continued.Henry was nowhere! Had he wandered in a smoke-induced incoherency? Was he still here? Then... Gukko saw a shape move in the tree.

"Henry!" Gukko called, his voice cracking. The shape shivered and lapsed. "Rochelle! I found cough Henry!"

The last thing he saw was Rochelle leaping up the tree.


	7. Injuries

Before I being this chapter, may I please state that I take extreme pride and honor in my grammar/spelling. But alas, the Document Manager sometimes bunchesthewordsuplikethisandskipsoutperiodsandcommas. So please do excuse me.

"Ugh..." The world was white... No, black... White...

"Gukko! You're awake!" Haylie's gleaming eyes shone out from under her hair. Unicorn stood next to her calmly. "Thanks, Unicorn, see ya later!" The Summon nodded and disappeared.

"Yup, Unicorn's one of my best friends," she explained. "Are you well enough?"

Gukko flexed his arm. Nothing broken... "Yep- Ark!" He broke out into a fit of coughing.

"Okay, maybe not as well..." Haylie thought. "Well, you seem well enough... Everyone's waiting!"

Haylie dragged him out into the commonrooms. The only one there were Rochelle and Douglas.

"Sso you sssurvived!" Douglas said thoughtfully.

"Where's everyone else?"

"Well, after Rochelle tossed you up on the deck, a freak gust kinda blew the airship into a cliff. Everyone else is in their rooms," Haylie explained. "Ironically,wewere least hurt." The Summoner sighed. "I think that yesterday was Unicorn's big day too..."

Taylor's left arm was in a splint (and so was his right arm and his left leg), Penelope's neck and back were encased in a brace, Larry's head was swathed in bandages, and the whole left half of Leroy was swarthed in bandages. Not to mention that Sir Fey was completely covered in bandages, save for the left side of his face, which sported an extremely fashionable black eye.

SirFey mumbled something that probably traslated into something close to "Nice job back there, Gukko, as you can see we're not feeling well today. But there's still a bit of business to take care off."

After a few minutes of Sir Fey's unflappable patience being tested and Gukko nearly losing all of his hearing, the latter nodded. "You're dispatching me?"

Everyone nodded.


	8. Soldier's Uniform from the Black Lagoon

IMPORTANT! I changed "Merlith" to Gussom or Gossum or whatever because I got the wrong person. Merlith's gonna come in later, don't worry.

"Nice, Gukko, but you put it on backwards, try again," Sir Fey said.

Gukko blushed as he looked down and saw the back of the Solider uniform. It had taken him three hours and help from Sir Fey, Douglas, and embarrasingly Rochelle and Penelope to get on half of the uniform. Now it was backwards! He blushed deeper and went back to change.

"Hmm... Yes, the shirt's right. But you put on a Templar's pants," Sir Fey explained. "That's Douglas's."

Gukko blushed even redder.

"Yes, you have the basic idea, Gukko, but there's a problem- you aren't wearing the headpiece."

"Well... It's a long sstory." All eyes went to Douglas, who reluctantly held up four scorched pieces of the same Soldier headpiece. "I'll just say it involved several Fire Swords and a Last Beserk or two."

"Wow, a Soldier Headpiece put our Gladiator on Critical mode. Let's look for a new one," Rochellecommented.

"Gladiator or headpiece?"

"Nevermind that one, Gukko, borrow my old one. Just try not to touch the Wyrm blood on it. Burns like hell," Sir Fey explained.

"Ahh!" Sir Fey looked up from where he was rewrapping the bandages around Larry's back. Gukko was screaming, and there were a few heavy thuds and a loud crash. "The uniform's possessed!" Gukko yelled from inside the room. The boy tumbled out, the pants over his head and shirt hopelessly tangled around him.

"Finally!" Rochelle nodded her approval. Haylie nodded too.

It had been years that Gukko wanted to wear the costume of a Soldier. Now that it was on, he was unsure about only one sole thing.

How the hell did Soldiers keep from scratching themselves to death?

"Erm, Gukko, I thinkthat Iyou've forgotten the inside, kupo," Larry said from under what seemed to be a huge pile of bandages.

Again, all eyes went to the tall Gladiator. Douglas scowled and dropped down eight pieces of the under part of the same Soldier uniform.

"Again, I'm a Master Soldier, so no need for me to be using my costume," Sir Fey said.

"Finally! We're off!" Douglas exclaimed as Gukko appeared from the room, wearing a lopsided, washed-one-too-many times headpiece.

"Finally," everyone agreed.


	9. kwh!

Sir Feyhad explained the mission well. Their goal was to dispose of a nu mou named Kratos of the North. Apparently, the nu mou was some kind of threat to the Redwings. Or was he just some innocent... With a wife and kids of his own...

Gukko couldn't shake the nagging feeling that there was something immoral or wrong about killing a Sage who had never wronged them...

Those thoughts he pushed aside. Sir Fey gave them all a new chance at life. He even gave Gukko a fate, a destiny. And hope.

"Gukko, you look chronically depressssed," Douglas observed.

"Huh?" Gukko looked up. "Oh, I was just thinking. Why do we need to kill him?"

Douglas looked confused. "Why question? I know that Sssir Fey and Gussssom are doing what's bessst for usss." The Gladiator thought for a moment, his eyes closed. "Perhapss the Sssage is a threat. A forming one, at leassst." Douglas stopped. "We're here. Get ready."


	10. Mission

"Aren't you coming?" Gukko asked.

Douglas shook his head. "I wish."

"Why not?"

"Ssir Fey gave me the command to intervene only if necessssary.He thinksss you're ready, but he's not sssure."

Gukko nodded and drew his sword. It was a Burglar Sword, empowering him to sense any hidden things and the such. The nu mou came into the clearing, a basket in hand. He bent down to pick up a mushroom...

Gukko leapt. He cleared the bushes, only nicking the toe of the boots, and landed in front of the Sage.

Kratos's head shot up, surprise. Then.. "Oh. It happens upon me that it is merely you, Kuros," Kratos said. "Well, don't just stand there, boy. Shall you ever assist me in gathering these before the sun goes down?"

Gukko flushed and turned around to face where Douglas was hidden. The Gladiator punched his chest and then the air, a signal for...

"I'm not Kuros."

Kratos squinted. "Shall this be some sort of ridicule of my handicap?"

Gukko flushed, not only with embarresment but with guilt. An unarmed, handipcapped old Sage?

But Douglas punched his chest and the air again.

"I'm here to kill you."

The Gladiator smacked his head against the palm of his hand.

"What did you jsut vocalize? Sorry, speak louder," Kratos said.

"I'm not here to help." Gukko held out his sword again, this time a more subtle approach. "You can make my life easier and just take one long step forward."

At this Kratos's eyes widened. He bellowed something and Gukko was thrownoff his feet as a huge fireball whipped in front of him. Shards of ice began to rain down upon him. He turned to see Douglas standing stoictically, his face not moving, totally emotionless.

More ice rained upon him as Gukko rolled over to expose his Bronze Shield. But another Aero whipped him, throwing him in the air and tossing him downwards like a rejected rag doll. Gukko felt his strength fast fading as another Aero whipped him upwards. But...

Guiding his fall, he stuck his sword out. Kratos only had time to widen his eyes before Gukko's impact.

"Esssellent, Gukko," Douglas said calmly.

Guko exploded. "I nearly died back there-"

"Hush boy, don't let Sssir Fey know that you sssaid that. It's bad to fear dying, you know. Unhealthy. Besssidesss, if I helped you, then would it be me or you on the missssion?"

He had good point, Gukko thought. For now he was happy that his first mission was a success.


	11. 

Note: This is years later. Although I hint at it, just in case, I put it in this note. And I thought that the term "level" was too unrealistic, so now it's Caliber. And it goes up to Caliber one hundred.

Sir Fey smiled broadly. "Well, this is your big day!"

Gukko peered up from the bed, under a cast and lots of bandages. The last mission, disposing of aDragoonthat seemed to be dangerous, left him with a concussion, abroken neck,and a sprained ankle. Not to mention the bruises lining up up his whole body. "Wha...?"

Sir Fey put down a heavy package on Gukko's chest. His cracked ribs protested.

"Omph! Wha..?"

"Is that all you can say? Congratulations, Gukko!" Sir Fey opened the box for him. "You are officially a Caliber 25 Fighter!"

Gukko gave him a thumbs up and vomited over in the trashbin at the side of the bed.


	12. We'll all meet again

Another note: Trust me, you don't want to hear every single aspect of Gukko's life. It can get boring, so I'm skipping around. Hope you don't mind.

00000000000000000000000000000000

Gukko tripped out of the changing room. "Sir Fey, I don't mean to question you, but I don't understand..."

Sir Fey laughed. "I'm a Caliber 95 Fighter, Gukko, trust me, I never would have gotten this far and survived with Double Sword. Trust me, Ninjas can learn it."

Gukko gazed at the Nosfada and the Ninja Knife in his hands and sighed.

0000000000000000000000000000000000

Sir Fey grinned.

"What?" Gukko demanded from under the Ninja costume.

Sir Fey kept on grinning. He gave Gukko something in a very old package, plopping it on the younger human's chest.

Gukko opened it and gasped. "My Fighter Uniform! I've mastered all 999 recommended AP for it already?"

Sir Fey grinned. "Yup."

000000000000000000000000

Grissom tapped his desk aboard the Redwings. "Sir Fey, brother, we need to withdraw from Ivalice. Things aren't too happy for us Redwings, with the new laws and the bounties."

Sir Fey nodded. "I knew this day would come, and I'll happily return home," he said. "But... I was thinking... We must leave a remnent here."

"Why?" Grissom asked curiosly.

"All our work we become undone then. We should start a new Ivalice branch to preserve our work. Glasm, you seriosuly don't wan-"

"Don't call me that!" the Dark Knight roared, jumping to his feet and knocking the chair back. His gaunleted fist shone in the air, ready to strike... But just as sudden as that sudden change, he lapsed down and calmed to his normal exterior. "So you're saying..."

000000000000000000000000

Sir Fey nodded. "Gukko, I'm sorry. We're returning to Rosettas for a while. Things aren't the best for us Redwings right now."

Gukko paled. "Am I...?"

Sir Fey shook his head. "We can't separate you from your family, Gukko. Instead of going out with the ladies in your spare time, you always go back to your home."

Gukko nodded.

"Well, now it's your turn, Gukko. You're going to start a new branch of the Redwings."

"Redwings II?"

"No, you can't seem to have _any_ connection with us. Understood? Good. Well,we picked out the name Borzoi for you, Gukko. Just for good luck. We all must leave soon, but we'll always provide any funding and start helping you recruit."

Gukko nodded. "But will I ever see you guys again...?"

Sir Fey laughed. "Oh, don't worry. We'll all meet again. Now, get as much rest as you can. Tomorrow's a big day."

Sir Fey closed the door behind him. "We'll all meet again... Maybe not in this life."


	13. Sir Fey's Good bye!

Sir Fey was last to disappear on the horizon. He was standing, cloak blowing in the wind, like one of the heroes of legend.

_I thought Douglas would have been last to disappear..._

But Sir Fey was last to vanish through the reddish sky.

_I really did believe that they would all disappear at the same time..._

Sir Fey waved. He was last to vanish.

_Good bye for now. Maybe we'll meet again._

Sir Fey was the last to vanish, floating away like a leaf upon a river.

_I guess that we _will_ meet again someday._

Gukko knew that Sir Fey was last to vanish.

"Good bye!" Gukko screamed his throat hoarse. "Good bye for now!"

Maybe Sir Fey said good bye too. Or maybe it was just a whisper upon the winds.

Raven, the Paladin like his father, waved too. So did the Red Mage, Gukko's sister.

"Thank you!" they all yelled.

This time, Gukko was sure that someone yelled "See you someday again!" back.

They had already, with Sir Fey and the clan's help, recruited enough to form a small clan.

Cooper, the chicken-obsessed Thief, waved a soy drumstick in the air in front of Rosetta, a viera White Mage, who just happened to be chewing on a piece of Ifrit-scorched wing. Upon seeing Gukko, he laughed and yelled,

"I like chickens! They're the dominent specie!"

"I wonder what Sir Fey saw in him," Hejaat commented blandly.

Bialiese, the viera Archer, looked up from where she and Thane, another Thief, were shairng a drink.

"Hello CL!" she exclaimed. "What's up?"

The viera twins, Celia the Archer and Reddy the Fencer, looked up as well. They both winked at the same time and resumed drinking.

"Kupo!" Wesley, the Black Mage, looked up too. "Why are you crying?"

Gukko lifted his hand from his face to see the soft dewy droplets on his fingertips.

"Huh? Oh, I'm not crying. Actually, when we were coming here, there was this huge chocobo-" he knew he was babbling.

"We know you're sad."

"Well, okay. So, did anyone see any missions?"

Bialiese nodded. "Well, I founda funny mission. It involves chick-"

"Chicks?" Wesley looked up. "Viera or human?"

Baliese scowled and knocked him with a well aimed Blackout. Over the mage's screams of "My eyes! My frickin' eyes!" she explained...

"No, not chicks, _chickens._ Well, apparently, someone wants someone to take back a few hens that their neighbor's dog has..."

All eyes went to Cooper.

"I like chickens!" he repeated.

"Yes, we know that.Well, Cooper, wanna go?"

Cooper laughed wildly. "I like chickens! I like missions! Chickens and Missions is double like I!" he screamed, backing into a nearby moogle.

"Hey!" the moogle exclaimed. "Watch where you're going, kupo!"

Cooper glomphed the moogles. "I really do like chickens! Are _you_ a funny chicken?"

Everyone laughed.

"No! I'm _Montblanc!_ Montblanc! Not chicken, kupo!" the Black Mage exclaimed.

"Mountain Chicken? Mountain chicken even better!" Cooper screamed, hugging Montblanc tighter.

"Umm... Okay..."

"Well, good luck, Cooper!" everyone called.

"I like chickens!" Cooper screamed.

"Oh boy, I don't believe that we're relying on _him,"_ Hejaat moaned.

"Well... So, I'm dispatching myself, Gukko announced.

Everyone stared. "Well.. I guess."

Gukko nodded. "Actually, I'm taking... Raven, you're coming too. There's been reports of a monster back in the open fields. I'm going to go see."


	14. OMFG! GETTIT OFF ME!

Raven scowled. "Gukko, my legs and feet feel really funny." Excalibur hung at his side. Raven had won the sword- a well-deserved reward too, considering he had gone against forty men twice his size and Caliber.

Gukko nodded. "Mine too. It's just wading through the bog," he explained.

"Umm..." They had actually been wading through the bog for hours now.

"Let's take a break." Gukko was sweating in the humid air. "Phew!"

Raven, meanwhile, was rolling on the ground, screaming. "IT'S GOT ME! GUKKO!" the Paladin screamed.

Gukko grabbed his friend's shirt and pulled. He screamed too.

"GIANT ULODONIAN LEECHES! RUN!" he screamed, tossing Raven's shirt over Raven's head and dragging him into the nearest clearing.

"OMG!" Raven sobbed. "OMFG!"

"Stop saying that!" Gukko yelled, nearly crying himself."Stay still!"

Now, pulling leeches off a screaming, sobbing Paladin was no easy task, especially with Raven suddenly screaming...

"OMFG! GETTITOFF! AHH!"

Yep, no easy task, especially because they were Giant Uludonian Leeches.

(A/N: Think Giant Amazonian Leeches. 6-inches? Can kill a large frog? Yep.)

They stretched out to three times their size, and their three-inch-long sucker were deep inside of the screaming, kicking Paladin. When the last leech came off, leaving behind a trail of blood, Gukko blanched.

"GETTIT OFF ME TOO!" Gukko screamed. "OMFG! OMG! RAVEN!"


	15. Night!

By the time Gukko an Raven stopped sobbing, the sun was beginning to set.

Raven let out a hysterical, strangled, laugh. "You know what's worse than Giant Ulodonian Leeches?" he asked.

Gukko shook his head. "What?"

"I'll give you a hint. They live in bogs... They like to burrow in your stomach and live in a huge gaping wound in your abdomen... And it's nearly impossible to get them out..."

Gukko thought. "Hejaat's fever medicine?" he asked.

"...And they come out at night."

"What? Don't tell me they happen to be..." Gukko looked around. "Uladon Bog?"

"I'm sorry, Gukko, it is."

Gukko let out a scream. "RUN!"

They beat the record twice over for long-distance sprint. They nearly collapsed at the pub.

"Well... I can say... We made record time..." Raven smiled brightly but tiredly.

Gukko knew that they must be a mess. "Let's get a room and a bath."

In order to save gil, Gukko ordered one small room.

Raven took off his shirt to wash when Gukko, again, screamed. "Raven! Your back!"

Raven looked around. Gukko's face was pale. "There's a leech, isn't there?" he asked quietly.

Gukko shook his head. "Half of one!"

Raven screamed.

Gukko moaned softly. Something was keeping him awake...

"Raven?"

"Mmmph.."

"Raven!"

"Mmmph!"

"Raven!"

"Mmmphh!" Raven shot out of bed. "NO! HEJAAT! YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!" Raven screamed. "Oh. Nevermind. I dreamed that Hejaat was giving me the fever medicine."

"There's something outside," Gukko said.

"You mean the crazy sadistic nu mou?" he asked.

Gukko shook his head. "I think..."

A soft glow emitted from Raven's hands, glowing like little sun-moons at his fingertips. He began reading the missions sheet.

"Help! Every night, a monster comes and takes away achild. We can't see anyone! Help!"

"Night, eh?" Gukko squeezed his throat.

"Mommy!" he cried in an imitation of his baby siblings. "Dadda! I need water!"

Raven smiled. He too squeezed his throat and began to bawl, trying not to laugh. The window pane opened.

Gukko leaped on the creature! He sat on its back while Raven turned on the light...

The creature screamed at the light. Gukko saw it briefly, looking much like an unclothed viera, only with a pair of horns in front of the ears and the forearms elongated to the size of its legs. It screamed again, blinded, but not hurt... One of the forearms whizzed too fast towards Gukko... Gukko grabbed his blade off the bed and began fending it off. But the creature started to gain ground...

"Mateaus! Grant Light! Holy Light!" Raven screamed.

A blinding holy light filled the room with its radiance. There was a soft smile hidden in the shrouds of light... Then it vanished.

The creature was no more, save for a burnt carcass on the ground.

"What's going on here?" The Pubmaster slammed open the door.

"Your monster," Gukko mumbled. "Raven killed it... Actually Mateus did..."

"Ayah!" a nu mou's scream. A disheviled-looking Sage rushed in, his eyes wild.

"Hey! It's the sadistic-"

"Evil child-stealing!" the Sage screamed, pointing at the burnt corpse. "EVERYONE! I SHALL ERADICATE ITS EVIL PRECENSE! SHUT UP AND STAY STILL!"

Gukko froze where he was, his muscles whining, as the Sage shouted extravagent rites. At last, the sun rose above the hills.

The Sage set the rosary down and bowed to the sun. "We are all safe now from the evil being," the Sage explained calmly.

A/N: I'm hyper! The last few chapters with the leeches and the crazy chicken Cooper were kinda insane... But I thought they were kinda funny.

**_R&R PLEASE!_**

MakoStreak


	16. Swords!

"What was that thing?" Gukko demanded as the bandages were tightened- again. He didn't notice before, but the putrid flesh of the child-stealer had burned and scalded him through his Fighter uniform, which he was repairing with one hand.

The Sage nodded. "Ah, yes... The Child-Stealer. Its proper name is Languas. Very rare, I may conclude. The last one, before yours, was slain in the reign of King Torry, four centuries ago. Daddy was one of the mages, I recalled. Stole the prince, stole many children." The Sage sighed. "Well, do yuo want to keep the carcass? I would love to keep it, but it's your right as the killer."

Both Raven and Gukko shook their heads. "Mateus killed it. You should haev it- it's vile and dangerous."

The Sage smiled. "Well, now I trust that you may know where the children are?"

Raven paled. "We're supposed to find them?"

"Well... I could help. But you haveto do the fighting, you see, they only stealto turn the strongest into more Languases. The others are eaten and drained. I can help you locate them, but if the children are already turned into Languases, they are extrememly volatile and hazardous, not to mention resistent to magic. You'll have to handle them. I trust that you have obtained previously aBlessed Silver Blade? Not yet? Well, I suppose I have a few left from my youth..." The Sage disappeared, only to return with two weapons- a Holy Blade made of finely polished silver and a Fighter Blade of silver too. But were wrought with intricate designs, maybe just swirls of a callgripher's dream or runes of an ancient, sacrad spell.


	17. Follow!

Gukko lifted the blade.

"Okay, so... I'm guessing you know where the... Lasonya went?"

"Lasonya? Oh, that's my favorite dish! My mother used to make it all the time." The Sage laughed. "Oh no, I don't know where the thing went. But I can find out. Let's see..." He slid the knife gently along the carcass and took out a burnt piece of something resembling a giant burnt prune. "The Womb."

"Womb?" Raven inquired.

"Oh no, not exactly. It's where it stuffs the kidnapped children to be turned into new Languas." The Sage lifted the Womb into the air and lit it ablaze. Amazingly, only the top half burned with a hovering fire. It licked towards... North!

"Follow!"


	18. Twisted children

Gukko smiled nervously. The nu mou Sage had led them to the exact type of cave that seemed to have popped right out of a fairytale. It was completely covered in vines and leaves, and the scent of decay hung in the air like an invisible, intangible shroud.

"So..." Raven remarked. "This is where?"

The Sage nodded.

"Okay, so I'm guessing we barge in there, kill the guards, and save the kids?"

"You seem to have gotten my point," the nu mou remarked.

"Okay! CHARGE!" Gukko yelled, drawing his sword and running into the cave.

There was nothing to charge at. "Huh?"

Both lowered their swords warily, waiting for the slightest movement.

There was a huge, pulsating sack at the end of the cave. Gukko crept towards it and before Raven could yell a word of caution, sliced it open.

Children tumbled out, crying aloud. But they weren't normal children. They were a pale, sickly green, the color of vomit. Like the time Hejaat stuffed him full of anti-viral pellets to ward off some sort of diesiese. Of course, it was quite a lot of pellets... Of course he spent the rest of the night vomiting out the window.

"Well, Gukko, you found them. Now, let's just get these kids back..." Raven scrutizinzed the assembled lot. There were small viera toddlers, human children... Moogles children... Even a few near-newborn bangaa. "Well, don't they seem a bit funny to you?"

"Kinda," Gukko admitted. "But probably 'cause the L-thingey. Okay come on, we're taking you home..."

One of the smallest reach up, grabbed his wrist, and twisted.


	19. The Langaus Gem

Gukko screamed.

The child, a black-haired human girl with huge eyes stared up and smiled. Not a soft, innocent smile that made you want to laugh- it was a malevolent smile with evil beyond her years.

"Um... Raven? I have a bad feeling!" Gukko called.

"What do you mean? Aw, I think she likes you!" the Paladin exclaimed, smiling. But that smiled flashed off his face as the girl twisted Gukko's wrist harder with an audible crack.

"Raven...?"

"HEY! SAGE!" Raven hollared.

The Sage hobbled in. He walked over to the egg sack and drew out something that seemed to be a rock.

"So this is it," he said softly.

"Huh? Help!" Gukko yelled.

"The Languas gem." He squeezed it, and the rock shattered to reveal a blood-red gem, cut like a diamond.

"HELP!" Raven screamed as little kids pounced him.

The Sage held the gem up. "So long I have sought my prize! It's mine!"

"Hey, help is appreciated!"

"Now it's mine." The Sage began to grow...

Gukko's and Raven's eyes widened. Before them stood a giant beast that looked like a vaguely humanoid creature with forearms the length of its legs.

"Laguas!"


	20. Languas!

Gukko grabbed the girl by her tiny wrist and began to throw her towards the cave wall but stopped as Raven yelled. 

"I think we're supposed to bring them back at least in a coma!" he yelled. "Come on! We can't fight here!" The Paladin began to run towards the entrance.

The Sage roared and lashed out with his huge claw-arm, sending Raven sprawling. He/it raised the claw, and prepared to strike down upon the helpless Paladin…. Gukko raced by, grabbed his friend's headwrap, and dragged them both outside the cave.

The Sage-turned-Languas waited patiently inside the cave, followed by the children, whose forearms were already significantly lengthening. So they had disturbed the process of the metamorphosis, but only hindered it…

"They'll be out here at night," Raven stated.

"Mhmm…"

"So… What do you think we do?"

"Well, we have these silver blades…"

"Uh-uh. Why would the Sage give us the blades in the first place, if he were planning to kill us?"

"Then…" Raven grinned. "Do you have any of Hejaat's fever medicine?"

"Erm, yes, I bring a few pellets everywhere I go. Why?" Gukko asked curiously, prying out a heavy bag from his belt.

Raven sat down and began to mold the grayish pellets into shapes. That done, he pressed them down into the runes on the sword. "There!" He raised the sword in the air to catch the sun.

"What did you do?"

Raven fingered the sword. "Can you read runes?"

Gukko smiled sheepishly. "Not really…"

"Malice-Evil-Hate-Malevolence-Loathsome-Morbid-Invasive…" Raven read the runes. "Here, give me your sword."

Raven did the same process with the medicine pellets.

"What does it say now?"

"Dandelions-Smiles-Laughter-Benevolence-Happiness-Wonder-Amazement-Love-Goodness…" Raven laughed. "Since the medicine has a bit of silvril alloy in it, I'm assuming the sword'll think the new runes are part of it. Come on, we must get rid of them before night!"

Gukko stepped forward first. "Well, are you sure?"

Raven shrugged. "Nope. What made you think I was?"

Gukko sighed and charged, slicing the Languas.

For a moment, nothing of particular interest happened. Then…

"He's getting bigger! Oh no!" Raven cried.

"Ssh!" Gukko chided.

Indeed, it was getting bigger, swelling up like a wineskin. But then dandelions began to sprout. The Languas roared a roar fearsome and alien enough to scare Adrammalech under a bed. Dandelions wove through, their golden heads reaching towards the sun. Then, they began to change, turning huge, white, and puffy. Finally, with one final roar, the Sage-Languas collapsed. A gem fell out. Gukko picked it up.

For a moment, he fell nothing. Then he felt a flurry of emotions- sinister, dark moods.

_ Raven! Why should Raven share in the reward? I killed it! _

_ Hejaat! Why should Hejaat be alive? _

_ Pellets? Why should those malevolent things even exist?_

_ Me! Why should I exist? What have I done…_

All those emotions suddenly stopped, replaced by a sharp pain in his hand.

Raven held Excalibur now by the sacred, golden blade. It was cutting into him too, Gukko could see where the blade had started to part the flesh of his hands.

He was his own hand. There, the gem lay shattered, the blood fragments sucking the light out of even the darkness of the cave.

"They're changing back!" Raven exclaimed.

Indeed, the children's forms were reverting back to normal, like a withered flower sucking up water, the petals fanning out once more.

They began to wail.

"GUKKO! MAKE THEM STOP!" Raven howled, his hands clasped to his ears.

"YOU MAKE THEM STOP!" Gukko wailed in return. "Ouch!" There was a sharp pain in the side of his head.

"LET'S JUST GET BACK AND TELL THEM THE CHILDREN ARE SAFE!"

The Alchemist put on his wyrm-hide gloves. "If one shard enters you," he confided to his apprentice, then depending on the size of the shard, you may become tainted; evil. You see, the Languas is an embodiment of pure evil. The power is drawn from the gem. Now, we must place it together now, to make sure that no one has taken a piece."

After hours after hours, the gem was back in place. "This gem seems much like it is made well and whole again. Now to destroy it." The Alchemist prepared to throw it into the sacred circle which he had made.

"Wait!" The apprentice thought he had seen something… A tiny, unnoticeable miniscule, chink taken out of the gem! It was missing! But it was too late. The gem had disappeared with a beam of bloody-golden light.

"Huh?"

The apprentice shook his head. Probably just a shadow. "Nevermind.

In a matter of minutes, the kidnapped children were back with howling, crying parents.

Ellia, the little viera girl, chewed the hem of her robe thoughtfully. She did not know why her Assassin mother was crying and weeping and yelling over her being gone for a little while.

Sandra, the raven-haired human toddler with huge eyes, told her best friend Ellia that her wrist was hurting.

"Stay still! You're _not_ okay!" the exasperated healer exclaimed. Yes, she was thankful that her cousin Sandra and her best friend Ellia were back safe and sound, but was it the nature of _all_ young men to assume that they could go out on adventures with huge, bloody gaping wounds?

Gukko struggled. "Madam, I'm fine, really, I'm okay!"

"No, you're not. Ray!" she hollered. A huge bangaa (impossibly even bigger than Douglas) that had to kneel down and squat-walk to get through the door came in. By his uniform, he was a Gladiator. Probably a dispatched unit from some clan. Whoever the bangaa, Ray, was, he pinned Gukko and Raven down with only one hand.

"Good, Ray. Hold them steady…"

Gukko and Raven both groaned.

"Please! You guys have gone up and above the requirements of the mission!" Shelly exclaimed. The Summoner pressed another bag upon the two.

"Um, thanks, but I don't think that we'll be able to carry all your gifts, much less use all of them. Please, we don't want to rob you of everything."

"Sir, Daddy's new chocobos hatched. He says that since you bought me and my brother Sammy, my sister Tammy, my other brother Teppin, my other sister Penelope, my cousin Hannah, and my third cousin twice-removed Hanni back safe, he wants to give you one." Sandra thrust before her two twin chocobo chicks, just a few days old. The two fluffy puffballs looked up and kwehed with giant, liquid eyes.

"Well, thank you, little girl, but we-"

"Take them!" Sandra looked pleased to have bought them the two chocobos.

"Well, okay, thank you."

After more times of villagers pressing gifts upon them, Gukko shook his head. "I have a family and a clan waiting. We both have to go-" he launched into a long thank-you speech in the end, the head Elder nodded.

"Love, victory and good fortune be with you!"

"So what exactly did we get?" Raven asked. They were carefully avoiding the Uledon bog and were an half hour's walk away from home.

"Well…" Gukko drew out the bags.

The chocobo chick kwehed again, begging to be fed.

"Ugh, the little bugger's constantly hungry," Gukko moaned, handing out another two handfuls to both chicks, who happily ate it, leaving trails of saliva behind.

"Let's see…" Raven began an account of their inventory. "Hmm… Gil. Lots and lots of it. An Angel Ring… Wow. A lifetime supply of Bracers… More gil… A chocobo egg. Lots of magical stones…" A few minutes later, Raven ended his list.

"No wonder we got so tired carrying it all," Gukko moaned.

"Let's hurry home now."

"Ow!" Raven suddenly crumpled.

Gukko bent down. "What-"

"My foot…" Raven moaned. Gukko wished he didn't see the way the ankle was twisted into an angle that ankles weren't supposed to be twisted in.

"There's a village. Here, lean on me."

"Just twisted ankle. Rest for the night- a room's ten gil," the healer said.

"Thank you." Gukko placed ten gil on the countertop. "Cheap!"

"Tonight's the Discount Night. Normally forty gil."

"Thank you," Raven said, touching his normal-seeming ankle and wincing. "Ow!"

"I forgot to warn you, don't touch it."


	21. Don't Even Try!

Raven sighed, putting his leg on the bed. "I'm tired."

"Kweh!" the chocobos wailed. With that, they began their hourly chorus of "I WANT FOOD AND NOW!"

"Okay, okay!" Gukko plopped the bag of grain in front of the two fuzzballs and watched their little heads moving inside the hempen sack. "Wanna go down for a drink?"

"Sure, I guess. Erm..."

"I'll help you." Raven steadied himself on Gukko, who nearly fell over. "Okay, come on. Stairs ahead!"

"Okay, now here's the last step- you got it?"

Raven stepped down cautiously on one foot.

Unfortunately, Gukko attempted to step down two, on a stairway not built for a Fighter and a Paladin next to each other...

Crash!

Instantly, the whole pub stopped. All eyes were riveted on the piles of uniform sitting at the base.

"Well...?"

"I don't believe it!" A Bishop shook his head. "You defeat a Languassss in a duel, yet here you are, unable to even climb down sstairsss in one piesse!"

Everyone laughed.

Both made their way to the nearest table.

"So, tell us about it," someone said.

"Well, there was this Sage..."

"Well, I never did expect..." a Sage commented.

"Well, that's the story." Gukko turned around, noticing a shadow, a flickering shadow. "Hey!"

She stepped out of the shadows.

For a moment there, Gukko couldn't speak. Mateus! The Totema stood there, fashioned out of moonlight, starlight, dreams, lust, glitter, and the every essence of beauty. She was the very embodiment of every good and beautiful- no, beyond that-

Gukko stared, his mouth open. It wasn't Mateus over there.

It was a viera.

More specifically, she was lovelier than he thought that _anything_ could possibly be. _I'm hallucinating,_ he thought. _I'm dreaming. Mateus has given me the best dream of my life..._ He could have just stood there forever, staring, gaping.

But one of the men pounded him on the back.

"Oh-ho, our little friend here has fallen in love with her again!" Everyone laughed.

The Hunter that had spoken winked. "I know, ain't she be the purtiest lil' doll you've ever seen? But I'd be reckoning for you to search for a different girl, boy- that be Callypso for you. Her momma- the fiecest lil' killer you'd never set eyes upon."

"Is she real?" he blabbered. "Am I alive? Is that Mateus?"

Everyone laughed again. "My good friend!" The Sage sighed. "I'm much afeared to crush your hopes, but every single one of us-" There was a loud cracking noise as a viera White Mage whipped out her staff and cracked the Soldier in front of her with a White Staff.

"You cheated on me!" she snapped as the Soldier moaned and clutched his head.

"Okay, so everyone of us have gone to try to try hook up with her. Little demon, I tell you," a Blue Mage sighed.

Everyone began to recount their attempts to woo Callypso.

"So don't even try."


	22. KISSI!

"Hon, don't forget to close the door!" Mother yelled.

Callypso closed the door and tripped. She could feel her face getting hot and red and her mind start boggling. She tripped over a shield on the ground. Huh? Mother didn't use a shield, and Father didn't either, neither did Mariasta...

"MARIASTA! TELL YOUR LIL' BANGAA BOY TO PICK UP HIS LIDS!" she hollered.

Her little sister and her best friend peeped out from the rafters above. Callypso walked back, tripped over it again, and ran straight into Mulgio's tail.

Mariasta slid down a long wooden beam and picked it up. "It's my shield! Mulgio gave it to me!" Mariasta exclaimed happily, huggling it.

Callypso nodded, not hearing, and collapsed into the seat. A basket of fruit clattered to the wooden floor.

Mother's eyes widened. "Hon, what's wrong? Why, you're burning up- Hey! That's not fever!"

Mariasta knew well what it was. Mulgio, not understanding it, shook his head. "What'sss going on?"

Mariasta giggled. "Callypso's in L-O-V-E!"

Gukko sighed. They were walking down the Town Square now, close to home.

"Still thinking about her?" Raven asked.

Gukko nodded dumbly.

"You heard what they say."

"Raven, do you think I'm good-looking?"

Raven considered. "Well, I'm no judge of that. I can hardly tell a pretty girl from an Alchemist!" He sobered. "But everyone says you're a pretty boy."

"Do you think Callypso..."

"Likes you?" Raven grinned. "I think she has the hots for you!"

Gukko scowled. "You're just trying to make me feel better."

"Really! Gukko and Callypso, sitting-" Raven began to sing when the front door burst upon. They were home.

"What was that you said about K-I-S-S-I-N-G?" Saki asked innocently.

Heya! Well, Hazard, I don't update so fast. I make a store of chapters and Aria, who has basically all electives this time around, controls the flow of them.


	23. And Bracers

Sorry! The Document manager deleted the . I'll put them in ASAP!

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"So what's that about?"

"Well, Hejaat, when we were at the town nearby-"

"He saw a girl and fell in love with her!"

Hejaat furrowed her brow. "Well, is she a slut? Is she mean, or just a pretty face?"

Gukko shook his head. "Dunno."

Hejaat wagged her finger. "I was hoping that you had the wits for someone besides merely a cute exterior. Maybe she's a shell on the inside, or maybe she' stupid or too-"

"I know, I know..." Gukko sighed again. "Nevermind. I'll know. Besides, she hates men."

Hejaat giggled. "Good!"

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"Cooper!"

The Thief came around the table and plunked down a heavy-looking bag of gil and a few items, a bow, a knife, and a sword.

"Here." Gukko handed the knife to Thane, who tested its blade on his dinner. The sword remained where it was, and the bow went to Bialiese.

"Well, that's the basics. One more thing." Gukko dumped the Bracers onto the table. Even after everyone had put a pair on, there were still to many Bracers.

"BRACERS ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!" Cooper screamed, swinging his soy drumstick right into Rosetta's face.

"Arg!" Rosetta swiped the remnents of vegan barbeque sauce off her face. "Cooper!"

"Gukko's in love! Bialises exclaimed, winking.

Gukko growled. "Next person to mention Callypso is automatic paper-working duty!"

Everyone was quiet until...

"Hey! Isn't Callypso supposedly the most beautiful creature alive? Also a man-hater?" Thane asked.

Gukko nodded glumly. "Paperworking duty for you."

Thane scowled but picked a pen out of Bialiese's skirt.

"Hey!" The Archer looked offended. "Sexual harrasment-"

Thane began the papers.

"So, next mission boss?" Raven teased.

Gukko scanned the list. "Hey, I found an interesting mission."

He read it aloud.

"Ah-hem! Looking for workers to go ona scouting mission .We expect to be encountering bandits. We seek a legendary warrior that is believed to be a recluse in the Dark Horn Mountain Ranges. Notice: This may take a long time. Must be determined and faithful. Payment? The sum of no less than 50,000 gil, Ragnorok, Hades Bow, Angel Ring... And Bracers."

Really! I noticed that everyone in Clan Borzoi had Bracers, so I decided to poke a bit of fun. Good night!

MakoStreak


	24. HuntHounds!

"Ah, so you're the Clan," the nu mou exclaimed. "Bunch of pigsy commoners," he sniffed.

Gukko flushed. "We're here to escort the mission. Who are you?"

"Don't speak to me like that," he chided harshly. "I am Babus Swain, Runeseeker. We seek out a legendary warrior hidden in these mountains."

"And you, a big powerful mage, are afraid of a few little bandits?"

"No!" Now it was Babus's turn to flush under his white fur. "But the recluse has a significant resistance to magic..."

"What was your name? Babus Swine-"

An Explosion ripped out towards him. Gukko felt a crack under him as he was thrown of his feet.

"What? You're unburned?"

Gukko nodded. "Must be the armor."

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"So..." They had stopped for the night. "Swan, are we there yet?"

Babus scowled. "We're not even close, Commoner!"

Gukko scowled too.

"Hey!" Bialiese was dragged into camp by a Coerl. "Hey!"

Everyone turned to look.

The Archer smiled sheepishly. "I couldn't resist. Satalan!"

The Coerl whined.

Bialiese laughed. "He's going to come with us now!"

"Bialiese, you can't keep _every_ single monster you meet-"

Bialiese laughed. "Don't worry!" She patted the Coerl's surprisingly fine fur.

"Bialiese..." Thane warned but sighed. "Let her keep it."

"Cool!" Bialiese grinned.

"Gukko?" Hejaat looked troubled but excited at the same time. "Gukko?"

"Yes?" He sat down next to her.

"Well, you resisted Swine's magic?"

"Must be the armor."

"No!" Hejaat sat up suddenly. "Platemail offers no absolute protection against fire nor magic!"

"So I'm immune?"

"Maybe. Stand right there... Good!"

Hejaat's hands began glowing. A large ice crystal formed above her as she let a Blizzard loose.

Gukko felt a soft tingling. But nothing else happened.

Hejaat's eyes sobered. "You're immune."

Gukko looked up, squinting. "Well, I don't know... I mean, remember the engagement with the mages? I wasn't immune then."

Hejaat pondered this. "Maybe it's an on-and-off thing."

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Dawn found them all travelling over the terrain, the Hunt-Hounds sniffing the trail and whining.

"Nothing?" Babus demanded to the Hunter.

Crout shook his head. "Nothin'."

"What do you mean then, that these are the best Hunt-Hounds in Ivalice?"

"I meant that they were the best. They can track a Kudik Tiger," he snapped.

Babus merely growled back.

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The Hunt-Hounds suddenly stopped and began to roar. Not bark, but roar, like an enraged Panther.

"She's here!" Babus screamed. "Everyone! Get ready!"

One of the Hunt-Hounds stopped roaring.

"Huh?" Crout knelt beside the dog and tugged out an arrow.

"Attack!"

Everyone instantly readied into position.


	25. Chapter Twenty and then five

Whoever the warrior was, she was an Assassin. Or at least something similiar to an Assassin. She jumped out from nowhere and leaped feet-first towards Babus.

There was a glow in the air as the Runeseeker formed a Barrier before him.

It slowed the Assassin's descent, but only like falling through water.

The mage fell backwards and hit his head on a rock.

"This is too ironic," Gukko muttered, charging at the Assasin.

The Assassin caught him in a bone-crushing grip and began to screech at him. It took him a while to make out the words:

"Gukko! You're alive, I'm so sorry I couldn't be with you, look at how much you've grown, bet the ladies never leave you alone..."

Babus growled. "You know her?"

Gukko looked, for the first time in years, into his mother's crystal blue eyes. They were sparkling and starting to water...

"She's my mother that supposedly died years ago."

Babus gasped. "So you're Rochelle? You're under arrest in order of the palace!"

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"Wait!" Gukko grabbed Babus's collar.

"Commoner! Get your filthy hands off me!" the Runeseeker snapped.

Gukko fumed. "Listen, Swine," he snarled. "I thought my mother was dead. I thought that she was killed. And now I see that she's alive again, and you just come along and snap her into Prison! What kind of heartless-"

Babus's Explosion caught him unaware, tossing him like a rag doll into the air and slapping him down again.

"Ugh..."

"I gave you one chance, two chances, but no, you're stilla rude, loud, little br-"

"Hey! Lay off him, pal," an unfamiliar voice said.

"Huh?"

Crazy Chicken Cooper held Babus up by his collar.

"What? You-"

The change was immediate. Cooper blinked and threw Babus down and began to scream about camp. "I like chickens!" the Thief screamed. "Are you a funny chicken?"

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Gukko made his way to where Rochelle was chained, both magically and physically, to the supply wagon.

"Mother?" he asked softly.

His mother's crystal blue eyes sparkled. A single tear slid down. "Here, come closer. Let me get a good look at you... That's my boy." More tears followed the first, a herd of horses sculpted from the winds. "Bet the ladies never leave you alone."

"Not exactly..."

"Where have you been?"

"Well..."

Rochelle sighed."I'm sorry I couldn't be with you all those years..."

"Mother?"

"Yes?"

"Why do they want you in Prison?"

She sighed again. "Well, I killed an important Palace official once. After your father and the others were killed... I was captured. I escaped from Prison and didn't serve my term yet."

"We'll visit, Mother, as much as we can."

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	26. IMPORTANT!

Hello! This is Mako, obviously. Well, I'm changing around the Clan Borzoi a bit, okay?

So, here's the new roster.

Hejaat- Red Mage, viera, obviously.

Cooper- Just a minor character now. Thane's younger brother. Human, but possibly part chicken.

Thane- Thief. Human

Bialiese- Archer. Thane's girlfriend. Viera.

Wesley- Black Mage. Moogle.

And new characters- Viera twins, Celia the Archer and Reddythe Fencer.

Also, in the next chapter, we'll be meeting Silverlock- Bangaa White Monk.

Well, thanks for reading!

MakoStreak


	27. Wink!

The newcomer whirled around, striking all the targets in a single Whirlwind. Then, he flipped backwards and sent an Air Render into another row of targets, blowing the straw dummies apart. To top everything off, he executed multiple attacks in the air, which ripped the remainder of targets to shreds, and landed on his toes like a dancer.

And he had done all that in less than ten seconds.

"Well?"

Gukko gaped at the White Monk. "Th-That was amazing!" He grabbed the White Monk's knuckled hands. "You're in! But... What's your name?"

"Sssilverlock. Everyone calls me Sssilverlock."

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"Everyone, meet Silverlock. He's our newest member," Gukko annouced.

The White Monk half-bowed and winked coyly at the twins. "Nice to meet you all."

"Well, just sit here while Gukko goes get the missions," Raven said. "Anymore beer anyone?"

Silverlock glanced around the table. Yes, these were good creatures and all, but it was the viera twins that caught his eye. He grimanced to himself. Geez, wasn't he supposed to be an abstinent bangaa? His teachers always warned him against looking in a lewd manner at anyone, especially a viera. But deep inside his head, he liked to rate the women and viera that passed by his house, judging by their face and figure...

"You can sit here, if you want," one of the twins offered. They both winked coyly.

"Thankss." He slid out the chair and slid in. "Sso... You're twinss?"

They both giggled. "Yep!"

"I bet it'ss fun. I'm an only child, ssso I wouldn't know." He took a long swig of the beer, aware of the piercing eyes of the twins on either side of him. Oh, he knew all too well that they were flirting with him.

"Oh, it's fun," one of the viera twins said. They were identical, and on his little perverted rating scale, they would recieve... Probably a nine out of ten.

"What are your namesss, ladiesss?"

"I'm Celia," the Archer said. "Ni-"

"I'm Reddy," the Fencer interuppted. "Niceto meet you." They both leaned on both sides of his shoulders.

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Gukko looked at the missions. "Hey?"

"Hmm?" the Pubmaster asked. "Found any?"

"Yes, this one..." Gukko motioned to one mentioning chocobos. But one caught his eye...

Serious Search

My daughter met a man one day in town. She won't shut up about him, and she doesn't even know his name! But that's not the last part.Now he's vanished.

I'm searching for:

The Fighter and the Paladin who slayed the Languas. About in the mid teens. I believe that they can be helpful in locating them, since they were in town when my daughter says she saw him.

My daughter is the famed Callypso.And now that she finally found someone she likes, I don't want her to be discouraged.

Mystrinia, Assassin mother

Gukko blanched.

"Yep, finally the beauty of the world finds someone, and then he disappears. Yep, don't even try go after her, as pretty as she is," the Pubmaster commented.

"I'll take that mission."

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Celia and Reddy tried to pull each other aside at the same time.

"I think I'm in love," they both said at the same time and scowled at each other.

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"Hey, Gukko?" Celia and Reddy swooped down on either side of him. "You normally make opposite genders sleep apart?"

Gukko scowled. "If you have a stable, ongoing relation with someone, you can sleep together, as long as you can find Drop Herbs," he replied drunkadly.

"Well, can you make an exception with Silverlock, me and Celia?" Reddy asked. She had pried their Clan Leader with achohal on purpose.

"Sure..."

"Thanks!" They both winked and rushed off.

"Sure, as long as when you duel tomorrow, you don't use Gunmanship, and Rosetta's on hand, 'cause I really don't want tocall the chocobos..."

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This chapter co-written by me and Aria Ztar.

MakoStreak


	28. Flickers of Sadness and Lonliness

"Tomorrow you're going on that Callypso mission?" Raven asked.

Gukko nodded and resumed biting his nails.

Raven stuck a piece of paper onto the Fighter's forehead.

"Hey!" Gukko tore it off and began reading.

"Gukko! Haven't heard from me in a while, eh? Let's just say it involves many things, mostly about law enforcement officials, rotten potatoes, and the such. Take youself and all the members you can trust and head to the harbor as soon as you get this message. Go to the Goddess of Wings, the ship with the Flightress on her bow, and tell the captain I sent you.

Godspeed,

Sir Fey."

Gukko groaned. "The mission was today... But I owe my life to Sir Fey..."

Raven pondered for a moment before replying. "The choice is clear. Let's chose our trustiest, then."

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The whole clan headed up the rampway.

"You're positive that you trust every single one of us?" Raven asked dubiously.

"Not Crazy Chicken Cooper," he shrugged back. "Captain? Sir Fey sent us."

The captain was a middle-aged bangaa, weather-worn and looking much like a tanned Panther Skin someone left in the sun too long. "Well... You be headin' fer de Fa Lanssss?" he asked, his rough voice sounding much like his appearence. "Naw probleem, I jissst need ter get zisss riggie up. Eeevrie-un! Pisitins!"

(A/N: I'm not all that wonderful at typing out accents/vocal stuff. If you have trouble reading the Captain's words, look to the bottom of the page for translation.)

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Raven looked far out into the ever-rolling expanse of water. _Water water everywhere?_ He almost laugh.The ocean was merely a desert filled with water. But the desert hid much life... And this desert they had been sailing on for three weeks already.

"What are you looking at?" a voice asked. Gukko appeared on his left side.

"Water. What else is there to look at?" the Paladin asked.

"Good point."

"Still sad about missing the mission?"

Gukko shrugged nonchalantly. "Who knows?"

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Mariasta scrambled up the hill alone, flickers of sadness and loneliness whispering to her. Muglio was sick with the chocobo pox, and Clementina was sick with the Rouchess... The Tree Twins had work to do... The other village children were boring and hated the thought of a viera whipping their butts at everything he even suggested. To top it all off, the town kids were snobby, prissy and waaaaay too boring and dignified.

The sun shone brightly on top of the grassy hill. On the brighter side, this would give Mariasta much time to contemplate her older sister's sudden shift of behavior.

Sitting on a sun-warmed boulder as the wind played through her hair, she thought.

_Callypso's been acting so weird ever since she met that guy in town...Momma says that Callypso's probably in love... But she also told me that often times, girls her age often fall for a nice face or big muscles, not bothering to look for what really matters... _

Mariasta stared out in the distance.

_Callypso normally shunned everyone, except for Father, of the opposite gender. Not outcasted, but merely, she ignored them or told them off if they were too demonstrative. But for the first time, Callypso waved to Muglio! And she stopped to chat to the neighbor boys. What's up with that? _

Mariasta watched a bird lazily flap across the sky.

_Wonder if it has to do with the guy. _

_Mother had posted up a request at the pub to ask for the Languas Slayers. She knew that they were in town... Maybe they know something.. When were they supposed to come- Today! _

Mariasta tucked her arms in the side pockets of her skirt, lay on her side, and rolled down the hill. It was the fastest way, after all!

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"Your sword's crooked," Gukko commented to Raven as they sparred, swords slashing the air.

"Yours too," the Paladin rebutted, blocking both his friend's swings.

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Mariasta knocked the door back with a wild punch.

"So has-" She stopped.

Callypso was scowling. Not just scowling, but snarling. Unusual...

"What's going on?"

"They ditched the mission," Mother explained. "Your sister is very angry."

At this terrible time, the neighbor boys knocked on the open door.

"Callypso, are you-"

"GET OUT!" she roared, making a hand motion like an exagerated slap across the face. Both boys' heads knocked sideways in a burst of red fire, and they ran away.

Callypso fumed.

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Raven notched the stick, his heart pounding. Five weeks had passed by now- they were nearly at Rosettas!

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"Well... You be heading for the Far Lands?" he asked, his rough voice sounding much like his appearence. "No problem, I just need to get thisRiggie (slang for ship)up. Everyone! Positions!"


	29. Not even me!

"Hap yer' haud a nayce 'oi ege," the captain said, crisply saluting the clan. "Hap ter see yer 'rund sm'time."

"Thank you sir," Gukko replied, bowing and hoping that the captain wouldn't take it as an insult.

The weather-worn bangaa nodded. "See yer."

(A/N: The translation is "Hope you had a nice voyage," the captain said, crisply saluting the clan. "Hope to see you around sometime."

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Sir Fey waiton the ground.

Gukko was suprised when Sir Fey blew on the dirt. The gravel instantly shifted to form an opening. Not swept away to reveal an opening, but like many pieces of a puzzle glided together to create a hole. Matter creating nothingness.

"Follow," Sir Fey mouthed. When the last person descended the staircase down the hole, Sir Fey blew the hole away.

Gukko followed the others downa staircase that wove and turned in complex designs. Often times it branched off, leaving a maze-like air to the tunnel. He would have thought the tunnel would be dry. But no! It was dark, damp and humid. It had the stink of a band of exhausted warriors coming through each day that no one cleaned away.

Sir Fey apparently knew ever twist and turn in the maze. Often they nearly lost him, so fast and silent he was. Finally, they came to the end... A dead end.

Gukko expected Sir Fey to blow on the door again. But to his surprise, the Fighter walked directly through the wall!

Hejaat blanched and turned around to face Gukko. She smiled painfully and lunged in after him.

The sensation of going through the wall waslike going through a sea of liquid cloth that slipped against you for eternity... Yet only a second...

One by one, they burst gasping from the wall. Sir Fey blew on a scratch on the next wall, which opened to a doorway wide enough for a chocobo.

"Come."

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Sir Fey's Dark Knight brother waited, thrumming his fingers on the table before him. Next to him sat a viera, probably a Sniper but possibly an Assassin too. Her big eyes peered out at the newcomers.

The dark, damp tunnel transformed intoa chamber comparable to the audience chamber of some random wealthy palace.It was well-lit by what Hejaat called Illuminations, or what seemed to be globular fairies hanging in the air.

Sir Fey broke into a huge grin and enveloped Gukko in a choking grip. "Lad, lad, didn't think to see you again! How's everything?"

"F-Fine," he gasped out as the air and life were squeezed out of him. "You-re-choking-me!"

"Sorry." Sir Fey let Gukko crumple to the floor. "So, we bought to here to explain something very important."

"What?"

Grissom got up and unfurled a scroll. "Releasing Ivalice from the Laws."

Gukko nodded. A noble cause! Every engagement, they had to endure, as well as slashes, stabs, burns, freezes, shocks, and all the other painful things, the incessant whining of the Judge, "Why am I even here?" "This is bo-ring..." "Hurry up, I need to go to the restrooms..." And the worst: "RED CARD! RED CARD! HAHAHAHA! I LOVE DOING THAT! REDDIE REDDIE!"

"So, I came up with a plan. We're going to gain total control of the Ivalician econamy," Grissom said. "We can force the Palace to let go of the laws."

Both Sir Fey and Grissom proceeded to explainthe whole plan...

"But before that, we need to strenthen your forces. We've 'recruited' a bunch of warriors and mages we saw fitting... Chose a few- we can't MindBlank them all."

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They were all bound and gagged with both magical and physical constricts.

Although they were mostly human, there were a few bangaa, a couple of viera, and a few moogles and nu mou too.

"Limited choices, mostly Humes," Grissom explained. "Easiest to catch."

Most were staring with extreme fright at them, but there was an Assassin there who was snarling at Grissom through her gag and with eyes blazing with fury... And an Alchemist whose eyes betrayed no fear but rage harsher than a Tonberry's... Also a Black Mage who was not angry nor scared nor upset nor even a tad bit frightened. His eyes blazed not with insatiable rage or sorrow but blazing, blazing curiousity. His gag held the imprint of numerous "Whys," "Hows," "Are," "Who," and "Cool!"

"I like the look of the Black Mage," Raven told Gukko. "Doesn't seem scared."

Gukko shook his head. "Seems awfully stupid."

"Well, we don't want backstabbers," Raven retorted, and they ended up choosing the Black Mage, a Ninja, a White Mage, and Dragoon.

All but the Black Mage the viera next to Grissom slapped. They fell unconsious to the ground, eyes lolling to a world none but them could see.

The Black Mage's eyes lit up. Words struggled through his gag: "How didya do that?" "Hey! What's your name?" "Do you like potatoes?" "What spell was that?" "Can I use the restrooms?"

Grissom scowled. "Take a left at the corner. Don't bother running away."

The Black Mage nodded and jumped off, tripped, and fell before Sir Fey sliced his bindings. He ran off, took a left at the corner, and disappeared with the sound of a door closing.

"Come on now. Let's get these guys away."

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No one asked what happened to those that were not chosen.No screams sounded, no maniacal laughter, no blade on a whettingstone.

"Sir Fey?" Gukko tapped the Fighter's shoulders.

Sir Fey finished polishing the sword sheath. "Yeah?"

"Who was that viera that MindBlanked them?"

"Rosielia. A banished Princess, Gukko's new girlfriend after he dumped Kathy or Kaite, whatever her name was." Sir Fey scowled. "He doesn't let his own brother call him by his first name, yet he lets the little slut!"

"Oh."

"You'd better get a bit of rest," Sir Fey said.

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The Ninja, the viera White Mage, and the Dragoon from last night were completely changed. They were amiably sipping tea and delicately eating their breakfast at a carved ebony table.

"What happened?"

"Rosielia."

"Oh."

Grissom appeared. "You guys done?"

The Dragoon, who was apparently the spokesperson for the group, nodded. "Yesss, we're finished."

"Gukko, you and your clan have breakfast. Then you depart."

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Sorry I'm skipping around.

MakoStreak


	30. Our next destination

Back in Ivalice, the whole clan rested at the closest pub.

Someone was playing a trichord in the "Less Noise, More Calm" room in the side, but they were drinking in theback room.

Gukko even managed to overhear the Blue Mage gossiping with the Illusionist sitting behind the clan.

"Didya hear?"

"Of course! Who didn't?"

"I won't be the first man in Callypso's sight."

"Me niether."

"You think the rumor's true?"

"Which one?"

"About Callypso turning into a man-hater because she thinks her cursh ditched her."

Gukko raced to the message board.

Man Hater

We've all heard of Callypso. Now she's not a man-shunner anymore! Good news? Not exactly- she's a man-hater now ever since her crush ditched her. Anyone who's not genderless or a girl, avoid her at all costs.

He peered down at the next rumor.

Callypso goes Boom!

She's at it again. A passing clanner helping harvest the fields just happened to be a Fighter. Somehow she has something especially against Fighters, 'cause she near blew him up. Maybe the one who ditched her was a Fighter? And what'll she do next?

Another rumor concerning Callypso...

Callypso nearly kills the Judgemaster

Yesterday the Judgemaster was sent to the palace hospital ward. Why? He came to ask Callypso to stop being so man-hating. She blew up on him and well, near blew him up. The Judgemaster is expected to recover in a few weeks from his coma, if he's lucky.

Gukko skimmed the other rumors, mostly concerning Callypso and blowing up things. _Oh no..._ he thought. _Oh no... This is my fault..._

Raven peered over his shoulder and read the titles. His eyes widened. "Where does she live again? I know our next stop."


	31. Lapse Regnarium C Makostreak

Mariasta watched her sister mope.

Callypso's eyes were blazing with extreme fury, like a Beserk'ed Gladiator.

"Big Sissie? Hey, calm down..."

Callypso shook herhead. "No. I'm not calming down."

There was a knock on the door.

Mother cracked the door open a crack, a bloody kitchen knife in one hand.

"What?" Mother demanded, cracking the door open a bit more.

A Fighter with tusseled hair stood in the doorway, a Paladin behind him, pushing him forward probably against his will, judging from the ruts his heels lefts in the dirt.

Mother lowered her voice to a whisper. "Boys, you'd better run. Callypso hates Fighters and barely tolerates Paladins," she hissed.

The Paladin gave one hard shove as the Fighter balked a prepared to step back.Unfortunetly, he pushed a bit too hard, and his friend was set tumbling into the doorway with a yell.

He collapsed on the floor in a daze, his wits knocked about by the potted plants near the door.

Callypso saw him.

"Uh-oh..." Mother muttered softly. "RUN!" she screamed. But it was too late. Callypso sighted him and began to build energy in her palms. Before anyone could stop her, she let fly.

Gukko ran straight into Raven, knocking them both over as the energy ball, too hot tobe fire, passed over and out the door.

"RUN!" the middle-aged Assassin yelled, forming a barrier.

"AREN'T YOU HER MOTHER?" Raven screamed in pain as a shards of energy embedded themselves in his skin and exploded.

"YES!" she screamed, pulling bothhumans under the table. "But don't think that means I can control her."

"MAKE HER STOP!" Mariasta screamed, ducking aside.

Gukko scrambled out from under the table. "Callypso?" he asked tenatively.

Callypso slapped him as hard as she could, orchid flames sprouting from the sides of the slap. "You ditched me!" she hissed furiously, comparable to an angry lamia.

Her mother swiped away another energy attack.

Gukko grabbed Callypso and pinned her arms to her back, only to be nearly ripped apart by a whirlwind of flames that leaped up around her, scorching the kitchen ceiling and incineratinga chair in the process.

Callypso began to prepare a Firaga... No! It was _beyond_ a Firaga!

"Callypso! No!" Gukko yelled. He flashed out a bouquet of dark, but not poorly-tasted, red roses.

Callypso dropped the beginning of the fearsome attack into nothingness. Her delicate, slender hands reached out for the flowers.

There was a silence as Callypso looked at them for a moment.

All of a sudden, Callypso vanished in a flash of silver light.

"Huh?" Raven rubbed his head. "OwowoOwow..." he groaned, scraping the dried blood off his clothes and skin.

"She went to her loft. Don't go up there," the Mother warned, her eyebrows furrowing. She sighed and dropped into a chair, the one that wasn't a pile of ashes on the ground. "Please. Don't give up on my daughter." Mystrinia sighed. She suddenly looked older and much more vunerable. "She's really a sweet, loving girl..."

(A/N: Please go ahead and read chapters 74-75 of Things are Different Now. Although you don't need to know the connection with Callypso and the Totema, it's helpful.)

"We'll come back some other time," Raven said. "Where's the nearest hospital?"

Mariasta sighed. "Around the bend. Avoid the fence, don't touch the Panther kit on the sidewalk."

"Thanks!" Gukko helped Raven out the door.

"Please," Mother said. "Don't give up on her."

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Callypso stroked the rose petals gently.

There was a knock on the door.

"Mariasta?" she called.

"No, it's me, Gu-" the voice said.

Callypso slipped a Water spell under the door. "Go away."

"Fine, I will then," he said and she heard footsteps fade into the distance.

""I'll come back some other time," Gukko promised Mother Mystrinia.

"Please."

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The next day, Mother came home with roses tucked under her arm.

"What are those for?" Callypso asked.

Muglio and Mariasta were sitting in the rafters again.

"Guess!"

Callypso's pretty face soured. "Not for the lovesick whelp?"

Mystrinia flushed. "Well, you see..."

There was a knock on the door.

"Callypso, will you get it dear?" Mother called in a strange tone.

Callypso swung the door open.

Gukko stood int he doorway, grinning sheepishly. He thrust a large bouquet of roses in her face with a "Will you go out with me?"

Callypso slammed the door on his face and turned back.

"Mother! You knew, didn't you-"

"Callypso, lower your voice," Mother Mystrinia warned.

Callypso knew the consequences of rudeness. "Yes, Mother. So... You knew?"

"Sure did," Mother said, not looking up from cleaning the vegetables. Her tone meant no question.

Callypso sighed and put her head in her hands. "You know how I feel about boys," she said calmly.

Mother's steely eyes flickered to her for an instant. "Yes, I know."

"So why..."

"Like oh my God! There's a Fighter holding roses walking down the lane!" Mariasta yelled, her voice straining to imitate the voice of one of the brainless wenches to walk around pubs, flirting with clanners and the such.

But Callypso ignored or didn't even heara glimpse ofMariasta'smimicry.She rushed to the opposite window.

"Where?" She readied a spell in her hands, the destruction ball in her hands.

Mariasta lowered Muglio down to the door, her little arms straining under the weight of the bangaa-child.

"Hurry! Under the table!" he hissed.

Gukko nodded and scrambled silently under.

Callypso scowled.

Mariasta grinned. "False alarm." She kicked the table.

Callypso snarled as Gukko bumped his head on the edge. "You!"

Mother muttered something and crossed her hands. Callypso flinched.

"Mo-ther!" she lamented.

Mother smiled and tucked a strand of stray hair. She turned to Gukko. "It's a complex spell but simple by my standards. Just Magic-Stop."

Callypso tried in vain to create energy in her hands. She sighed and put her hands on her hips. "What do you want?"

"Will you go out with me?" he asked nervously.

Callypso scowled. "No-"

"Give a reason, give a reason!" Mother chided.

"No, I will not go with you because.." Callypso nibbled the tip of her finger. "I asked you last time, didn't I? And you never came!"

"There was an emergency, short-notice-"

"Isn't that what they all say?"

"At least stop blowing up Fighters," Gukko snapped back, his temper rising.

"Stop blowing up Fighters?" Callypso's lovely voice took on a mocking, sadistic tone. "Can I blow you up first, pretty please?" She struck her adorable begging look with big, soulful, irresistable eyes and pouting lips.

"Yes, or cour-" Gukko blushed and corrected himself. That look was so... So... Gukko failed Main Tongue one year, so don't expect him to come up with anything brilliant. That he almost gave in.

"If you blow me up, will you go out with me before?" he asked seriously. "Maybe you'll like me enough to decide against it."

"Well, you're just-" Callypso stepped up and poked him in the chest where there was no armor. The physical force wasn't strong, but her anger and willpower blowing up beneath it was enough to send him back a few paces. "Just trying to look good for a friend, eh?" Callypso's depthless eyes narrowed.

Gukko shook his head. "Even if it's in a discreet location?" He had no idea what discreet meant, but he heard Hejaat once use it in a similiar manner.

"You'll just brag about it in the end."

"Being Lovely Callypso and all, you've probably had a lot of people claim of have dated you, so if I went Beserk and starting blabbing, who'd believe me anyways?"

"Good point..." Callypso chewed her lip.

"Second of next Huntmoon," Mother cut in.

"Mo-"

"SECOND OF NEXT HUNTMOON! Spina Lodge!" Mother repeated. "That okay with you?"

Gukko nodded.

"Okay. We're all set then," Mother said contentedly as Gukko exited with a bow.

Once Gukko was no where within one mile of the little house, Mother smiled. "I have connections, honey, they'll make sure no one sees you," Mother said.

Muglio began counting on his claw-fingers. "One... Two... TWO! Misssstresssss, but that'ssss two daysss from now..."

Mariasta giggled. "Can I help you pick out what to where?"


	32. Epies cex Centrus again, copyright Mako

"There!" Mystinia finished dressing her eldest daughter up in one of her teenage-year gowns. It was her favorite.

"How do I look?"

Callypso was dressed in a long gown the color of a sunrise reflecting off rose petals.Unlike most of Callypso's fancy dresses, this one had no lace. Younger Mystinia liked something less frilly. The long sleeves were tied up at the elbows with silk ribbons and fanned out like huge blooming flowers. The neckline swooped like the wings of a Wyrm down- cute, not lewd. The whole outfit was completed by half of Callypso's logn silver hair braided and nested into a crown, and the other half flowing freely like a river of dreams.

"Wait." Callypso drew something from her dresser. It was a face veil with roses along the sides.

9090909090909090

_What if she ditched?_ Gukko pulled nervously at the edges of his shirt. Hejaat had warned him that most girlswereflamboyant, pretty and sweet now but actually little demons underneath.

And the same Hejaat forced him (literally) into Fighter's fancy dress armor, pretty to look at but even prettier in a battle to the wearer.

The othercouples, mostly young clanners and their dates and the such, chattered softly around him.

The table was set for two with a single rose inbetween and a rose-scented candle flickering coyly.

_How could a candle be coy anyways?_

The waiter, a young bangaa with exceptionally fine features and delicate-seeming frame, had stuck his hand in that candle and the glove caught on fire. In the process of screaming "Fire! Fire," he had dunked the cups of water he was holding madly around, splashing Gukko with the contents until a nearby Bishop, irritated about his night out with his girlfriend being disturbed, muttered a small Water. Unforunately, Gukko, in his haste to help the young bangaa, had followed his leaping movements in search of more water, stepped right in the way.

So he was effectively soaked before finally, an Elementalist, with a Concentrated Sliprain, settled the whole crisis.

But Gukko was soaked.

His two swords, the Venus Blade and the Flametongue, were safely (and dryly)es, more out of caution than to show off to Callypso.

The Bishop and the Waiter apologized and tried to make up Gukko's sopping wet clothes by various things that included an Aero spell, towels,and a Shining Air by the Elementalist. Unforunately, it also rendered him blind until a White Mage, ticked off by the commotion, slapped an Esuna in his face and sat down again. By this time, Gukko was somewhat dry, but his shirt was still sopping wet.

The mad beast of anxiety frolicked in his gut until, fashioned out of creamstone and moonlight and white silver, Callypso appeared.

Gukko stood up and pulled out the chair on the other side of the small table for her.

"Thank you." Once she made sure no curious clanners would see her face, she pulled back the peachy veil.

She was even more beautiful by the moonlight streaming through the window in the ceiling. The candlelight chased shadows over her smooth face, but that only made her look all the more alluring.

"Well, thank you," Callypso said.

_Hejaat and the clan had insisted that the budget be not too small. _

_"We're a good clan. We can afford it," Hejaat assured him. _

_"No, I don't want t-"_

_Bialiese knocked him out so he couldn't argue._

"So... How long have you been living here?" he asked, trying to start a not-too-awkward conversation.

"Your shirt's wet," she commented.

Gukko blushed and explained the whole Waiter-Sliprain-Water commotion.

A faint trace of a evanescent smile traced Callypso's features. "Here. Let me dry it." She reached over and touched the center of his chest, creating a circle of dryness that expanded. The shirt was dry.

"Erm, thanks... I guess, well..."

"I've lived here all my life," Callypso answered the first question. She nibbled the edge of her finger daintily. "Ever since... I was born, obviously. How silly!" She laughed lightly.

Gukko wouldn't have cared one bit of Callypso spent the whole time talking, as long as she laughed and smiled too...

"Well?"

"Erm... Sorry..." Gukko stammered. "What?"

"Where were _you_ born?" Hergentle tibre held no trace of annoyance.

Gukko found himself pouring out his entire lifestory to her.

In the end, Callypso nodded.

"I believe you all right," she replied. She lifted her claw-hands gently to touch the side of his cheek. He flinched, unsure of what to say or do. "Not used to girls, eh?"

"N-No, I mean, never."

Callypso sighed. "I'm not used to boys either, only the type that threw rocks a my window and yelled at me to come down for a midnight rampant."

"Must be annoying?" He was glad that idea never occured to him.

"At first, yes. Couldn't get any sleep. But after a few fireballs, they kinda got the idea."

"Disturb Callypso and die?" Gukko flushed. He never meant to say that-

"I guess. That's a nice way to think about it." Callypso laughed.

"Well, what would you like?"

Callypso seemed surprised. "I already ate dinner at home! Erm, I feel so awkward. Never felt this before... What do you want?"

Gukko shook his head. "Only you." He blushed again. He didn't mean for the words, they just came out.. This was the start of the Apolcal-

"Then you'll get it." Callypso lay her head on her hands. "Okay."

The rose candle flickered.


	33. The Moon over the lake

After doing nothing but sitting, not even ordering anything, Callypso decided that the restaurant was too stuffy an atmosphere.

"Thank you," Gukko said politely, tipping the fine-featured waiter a few gil.

"Thank you sssir," the waiter said in return and ducked into the kitchen.

"So..." Gukko escorted Callypso the formal way, one arm around her waist and the other on the hilt of his sword like Hejaat showed him (she had drilled him on the proper way to treat a lady and the such). "Where to, Callypso?"

Callypso slyly pondered his question fora moment. "Somewhere nice and quiet?"

"Well... Along the lake?"

"Sure thing."

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They would both remember that walk on the beach forever. The lake shimmered in the moonlight like a black-silver angel of peace. The moon was deep and white, a soul of eternal lunminescense and beauty. There was a gentle, rolling mist over the lake that hung like a benign guardian, and to Gukko like a wedding veil... He shook the thought out of his mind. Lolling waves gently lapped the edges of the beach of the lake. Beyond, there was nothing but darkness- not the darkness of which demons and nightmares were spawned from, not the type ofnight that sent even the bravest little bangaas to their mother's rooms, not the element of black that sparked fear and oppression. It was the darkness of which angels and dreams were spawned from, the type of night that sent romantic lovers strolling along the edges of a moonlit lake, the element of black that whispered peace and serenity. And all along that tapestry of dark velvet, diamond studs of stars were delicately sewn by a hand as light and delicate as Callypso's.

"A perfect night, isn't it?" Callypso purred softly.

The moon glimmered brightly.

"Very nice out," Gukko agreed, not sure what else to say.

"Yes, obviously!" Callypso laughed nervously. Gukko could have sworn he saw her blush and redden a bit. "Well... Let's just talk."

The night wore on as the two circled the lake, both oblivious of the moon waltzing slowly and gracefully across the sky. Finally, a bit before the moon neared the last stretch, Callypso sat down on a stone outcropping.

"I wasn't away of how long we were here," she commented.

Gukko sat down next to her. "Me neither..." He picked up her hand gently. "Tired?"

She nodded, her lovely face catching the late moonlight as well as his breath. "Sit?"

He nodded and sat down too, carefully pushing his swords a bit so that the two didn't scrape. "Well... So..."

"We ought to be getting home soon," Callypso offered, twirling her hair. "It's getting early... Late..."

Gukko was about to respond, but Callypso grabbed his hand in an iron-clad grip.and proceeded to kiss the wits out of him.

Of course Gukko struggled, what else could he do?

But with each butterfly kiss Callypso gave him, he felt himself slipping away...


	34. Curiousity

Raven had just finished arranging for stew for the clan when Gallahan, for the tenth time, got stuck in the broiler.

Of course, at first, no one knew- the Black Mage was more curious than a Panther kit and had just enough common sense to fill a teaspoon.

So when they heard his screams mixed with "How does it work? It's boiling,"they knew where the latest addition to their clan had gone.

And it took a total of four Defenders and an especially strong Mog Knight to pull the Black Mage out of the tunnel of steam, plus five White Mages and an Alchemist to heal him back into normal condition.

So this is where the chapter starts- when Raven puts down a few rules for Gallahan- no sticking your various body parts where they don't belong.

Gallahan loved this new "extention of charismatism" until he found out it meant he couldn't "find out the way things worked by casual expirimentation."

"But it is _not_ casual, and it's _not_ safe!" Hejaat exclaimed as Gallahan proceeded to mope. "You know it's not good to do those kinds of things. You could kill yourself!"

Gallahan looked disappointed but receded back to his chair, leaving Hejaat to pick listlessly at her stew.

Moments later, he returned.

"What's wrong?"

Hejaat continued the stir her stew in the cooling bowl.

Poke. "Hey?

Poke. "Hello!"

Poke.

Hejaat threw her hands up. "All right! I'm concerned about my brother. He's normally always back before dark, unless he said so otherwise..."

Normally, nothing could have comforted Hejaat's nervous worrying.

But Gallahan did. The way he said it so obviously, so simply that no one could doubt it was amazing-

"If Callypso beat up the Judgemaster, I'm sure that they're both safe."

Hejaat grinned and gulped down her stew. "Thanks, Gallahan, thanks."


	35. Haunted

Mystinia opened the door, her large brown eyes peeking out like a small child's. "Yes?" Then, "Oh, Callypso! You're back!"The door widened.

Gukko bent down to kiss her hand like Hejaat told him to and blushed.

"Well, thank you for the night," she said elegantly. "I hope we can do it again sometime."

Gukko smiled courteously and politely as he had his way back to his clan's base.

* * *

The moment the door opened, everyone went quiet. Even Saki, whose cheerful chattering normally filled the house at all times. 

"What?" he demanded as he closed the door.

Instantly, everyone, even Silverlock, pummeled him with questions: "How wass it?" "Did you kiss?" "Who was she?" "Why?" "Huh?" "Tell us-"

"QUIET!" Hejaat screamed, and surprisingly, everyone, including Gallahan, shut their mouths. "Okay," Hejaat proceeded on with the questioning calmly, until Gallahan suddenly yelped,

"TELL US EVERY DETAIL! EVERY ITTY-BITTY-"

Messara and Sabina pounced on the Black Mage from both sides with louds squeals of pure delight.

"I told them they could do that when he got out of hand," Bialese said cooly, filing her already-perfect nails. "So... Then?"

* * *

Raven climbed up the railing past the stairs, despite Hejaat's calls of, "You're missing dinner!" 

There, he found Gukko with his head out of the window, staring at the sky.

Raven never forgot how Gukko looked. Normally...

He had to admit, he'd only seen Gukko, his adopted brother and best friend... But now the setting sun outlined what random strangers saw.

A haunted-looking Fighter with a very handsome but very, very melancholy face had the skin on his arms and chest occasionally marred by a series of scratches and scars. Raven shook his head, thouroughly convinced that Raven was turning homosexual. His tusseled hair and haunted gave the appearence of... A killer. A murderer. A blood-letter.

"Gukko?" Raven plopped down next to him. The stranger withthe handsome, haunted face vanished, and there was Gukko, with his familiar face and muddied cheeks.

"Heya!"But despite the cheery greeting, like a crocodile under the surface of a glittering pond... Something was troubling him.

"What's wrong?"

Gukko shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothin'. Just thinking about the next mission."

Raven shook his head. "I know you too well for you to lie, mon ami. What's wrong?"

Gukko backed up until his back was against the wall. "Nothing! Really, Raven, I'm fine, just nervous-"

Raven, seeing that Gukko was about to flee downstairs to the safety of the dinner table, grabbed his friend's hand and squeezed hard.

"Ow! Raven...!"

Raven's grip and stare tightened on Gukko, closing like a metal vise to squeeze the truth out...

"FINE!" Gukko looked like he was about to burst into tears. He pushed Raven against the wall and held him by the shoulders. "RAVEN! I'VE BEEN DATE-RAPED!'


	36. You've been WHAT?

Raven nearly screamed. "_You've been WHAT?"_

Gukko slammed his head against the wall. At first, he opened his mouth to scream, but all that came out was a soft whisper, "I didn't even _know_ what she was doing. If I _had,_ I'd have fought back... I never really liked..." His voice faded away.

The Paladin shook his head. "Gukko, you're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding."

"I _wish_ I were kidding."

"Wait... It's supposed to be the other way around!"

"Well it's _not!_"

"How the hell do you, a big strong Fighter, get date-raped by a _girl?_" Raven demanded.

Gukko backed against the wall, a trapped creature. "I-I-I don't know... It all happened so fast... One moment I was sitting, the next... She pulled me down by magic..." Gukko's lip trembled. "You don't know, Raven, you don't know..." he moaned.

Raven took a deep breath and cast a Nurse. "Okay... Let's get this sorted. _You_ were on a date, right?" Gukko nodded. "And then..."

"We went out to the lake. We didn't have dinner... And we talked until dawn. After that, we sat down... And then... And then she-"

"Okay, I don't need the details." Raven took a deep breath. "Is this why you're so freaked out?"

Gukko nodded listlessly.

Raven sighed. "Gukko, I don't think that Callypso means any harm... She's not used to being restrained. You know that."

"Are you saying she's spoiled?"

"A tad bit... There being a big age difference between her and Mariasta. Well, Gukko, she was doing what she thought she was supposed to do." Raven chewed a strand of his hair that had come out from the turban. "Next time just tell her that it hurts, and don't do it."

"You sure?"

"No. But since when have anyone of us been sure?" Raven laughed. "Well, I guess that it's about time dinner got cold. Come on."

* * *

See why I increased the rating? Peace, friends, all will be told in time...

* * *

aria"s note: LOLZ, sry, but i kinda kinda put the chapter in teh wrong order sry. reread it. this comes after gukko tells raven hes been dateraped. 


	37. Neat Quaintness

"Sssorry, but I can't let anyone see her. Much lesssss a clanner," the Defender said.

Gukko sighed. He hoped he wouldn't have to resort to this, but he pulled out a bag of gil from his belt and dangled it oer the bangaa's eyes. "Can I see her now?"

Without a word, the guard snatched the bag, bit acoin to make sure it was real, and slid the bar over.

"Thanks." Gukko closed the heavy wooden-metal door behind him.

* * *

The jail was not the most pleasant of places. But... The guards were only living creatures, and an aged, once-gorgeous mother viera living in a mud hole for years was too much to bear for a few of them. 

Gukko and Hejaat reached the chamber finally after hiking down flights of stairs, only to hike up more stairs into a tower.

"I think this is it," Hejaat said, drew out a lockpick (keys would require extra bribe) and fiddled around in the keyhole until click! The lock fell off.

"Mother?" Gukko leaned his whole weight against the door. "Mother?" Hejaat called also.

The room was a tidy little room no more than a few yards across and back. But it was considerably better than most of the jail rooms with its spotless condition and neat quaintness. Rochelle looked up as she heard their voices.

They both ran over to their long-lost parent.

After an exchange of hugs and "How are you's?", They all sat down on the bed.

Gukko and Hejaat related to her everything that had happened... When they got to the part about Callypso-

"Honey, that's great! I knew you were a born ladies' man, just like your father..." Her voice trailed off.

There was a knock on the door.

"Hey! You! Visiting time's over!" someone's rough voice called.

"We'll come visit again sometime, all of us. And you can see how much we've all grown, and.. Sunny's a Summoner-in-training now... Well, you'll come back with us someday, right?" Hejaat hugged Rochelle as Gukko followed suit.

Rochelle sighed. "I promise. When I get out of the jail..." She straightened up. "The dust bunnies better be worried! And someone needs to make sure you change your underwear, Gukko-"

"Mo-ther!"

Hejaat laughed. "Goodbye, mom."


	38. WHee!

Note: In this chapter, you'll see an event from both Mariasta's and Raven's eyes. Raven will be underlined, and Mariasta's viewpoint will be **bold.**

* * *

"Kweh...!" Two chocobo chicks, just waist-high now and still as fluffy as dandelions, appeared over the knoll, chased by a little viera wearing a too-big cape and a pot over her head... Playing "Magic Adventurer! Whee!" 

Raven looked up from where he was consulting a map. _Gukko would never talk to Callypso about... What happened on the date... I'll go see her myself._ Raven stared at the map. _For both of their sakes._

It was a nice day all right, the kind that you read about in little childrens' books, a day filled with grassy meadows, sun, wispy clouds, and dandelions and kittens. It was pleasantly warm, but not too hot... The perfect day to travel to the rural area between Muscadet and Sphrom.

"Sabina, don't run them to death," he warned before setting up the map and shouldering his bag and mounting the waiting chocobo.

The little girl looked up from where she was throwing her arms around Mateus Star-Rise's neck and grinned.

"Have fun," he called after him, setting off...

* * *

Raven arrived at Callypso's home after an hour of walking and pausing to rest in the shade. 

After hiking through a dense forest, the trees suddenly broke clear into a grassy, rolling, lush green meadow, fenced in by a pristine white fence and dotted with an occasional chocobo. Raven saw someone! He dismounted and walked off.

* * *

Mariasta was bored. Monte was away with his father to observe various dispatch missions, and... All the other kids were too wimpy and prissy to play with. 

Oh, Mariasta knew what she wanted and dearly. She wanted a fistfight, a brawl. She wanted to get bruises and maybe her lip split and to feel her punches rain against someone's gut...

"Good Lady!" Mariasta scowled, having more than enough of her share of "Good Lady!" and "Greetings, fine Lady!" Usually it ended with, "Is your sister-" and a giant punch on Mariasta's part.

And this was no exception. "Is Callyp-"

"She's already taken. Her boyfriend'll beat you up," Mariasta said outright.

Raven shook his head. "No, no, I'm not trying-"

**Mariasta scowled. "Come closer then, so I can see you," she commanded, not mentioning that she could see each hair on his eyebrows from her distance. The closer he was, the easier for her to throw the first punch, after all.**

Raven stepped closer. Hey, Callypso's little sister was like a Panther kit- cute but fierce and more likely to bite than to purr... "Hey, you're Mariasta, aren't you?" He had heard about her from what Gukko told him... So this was what she-

**_O Sweet Beautiful Callypso! O Mariasta the Lucky! So Lucky to have such a wonderful older sister! Geez! Why does everyone want Callypso? What about me?_**

**"Who are you?" Mariasta glowered. Oh great. Just great. Callypso's admirers. What about Mariasta? Sometimes she just hated her sister, hated her, hated her beyond any mere sibling rivarlry, hated her beyond everthi-**

"I'm Gukko's best friend," Raven explained. "I just need to talk to Callypso about something-"

**A backstaber, eh? That's what her sister does, Mariasta thought. _She turns best friends and brothers against one another-_**

"Hey, so where's your sister?" Raven asked again... The little (actually, considering her size, not very little) viera was fast becoming a nuisance. _Why didn't she give a straight answer for once? _

**This Paladin is persistant! Who did he think he was, to demand Callypso so boldly? If he was Gukko's best friend, wouldn't he already know that Callypso already had a date? Mariasta felt a punch storing up in her right arm... And the Paladin's idiotic persistence was _not_ helping.**

"Mariasta, please, this is really important..." Raven shook his head, seeing Mariasta's expression...

Her jaw was set tightly and unmovably. Her whole body was in a ready stance, like a mountain... And from her eyes, a steadfast stubbornness radiated, creating an intangible, almost-seeable force field around Mariasta. _Great Gods! Why can't the viera see that this is really important? What did she think he was trying to get to Callypso for? Didn't she know her sister was... _

**What are you going to say to her?" Mariasta demanded. She growled. This Paladin was among the worst of the annoying boys coming to attempt to talk her sister into a date... What an idiot. A backstabbing idiot. **

"Hey, if I tell you what I have to tell you sister, will you let me see her?" Raven was trying to keep an even temper, despite THE FACY THAT HE WANTED TO TEAR HER DAMN SMIRKING FACE OFF!

**_Oh great. _"Maybe...?"**

Raven wasn't sure how to break it to the little soul that her sister... That night... He took a deep breath. Another deep breath, and another, trying to figure out how to say what happened that night...

**The Paladin Birdie whats-his-face seems to be dying of heatstroke! Why's he panting like that? "What are you doing? And what's the message?" **

_Okay... Calm down, Raven.. Think..._ "Okay, Mariasta.." He took in a deep breath. "Do you know what _rape _is?" He watched her wrinkle her face and reply, 

"Something very bad."

**Why's he asking me about rape anyways? Mariasta wondered...**

"Okay, so remember that your sister and my best friend went on a date one night..."

"Uh-huh..." 

"So then..." Raven was trying to control his anger as hard as he could. This little viera was seriously getting on his nerves... 

And in a furious explosion, Raven screamed: "WELL, _YOUR_ SISTER DATE-RAPED _MY _BEST FRIEND!" Raven screamed.

**Mariasta burst too. "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU SAYING?" she demanded. Sometimes she could hate Callypso... But accusing her older sister of... Rape? This Paladin is crazy! **

**But no, the Paladin didn't stop at that. His evil mind went on concocting an evil brew of words...**

**"Well guess what?" he demanded. "She _did._ And not only that, Gukko doesn't have the guts to tell her otherwise. So _I _have to tell her- Oof!" **

**Mariasta had swung her whole weight over and punched the Paladin Birdie hard in the gut. **

Raven staggered back with the force of the blow and his surprise, and when Mariasta's hands reappeared in ready position, he staggered forward...

"I'm sorry... But I- -Don't hit- -girls..." he wheezed.

"Well," Mariasta said with satisfaction that the fistfight hiding in her all day could come out finally, roaring and screaming. She let loose a bodyblow again to strike him in the kidneys. "Get up and fight!"

Raven shook his head. "No.. . Daddy told me not to hit girls..."

"Well, as Lady Mariasta," Mariasta said in a mock-nasal imperious voice, "I-eth commandeth thee-eth to fighteth!"

Seeing that he had no other choice, Raven charged at Mariasta, swinging his fist, which connected with air as Mariasta lept out of the way. And as she leapt, she stuck out her arm, intending to swipe Raven off his feet. But Raven grabbed her arm while his momentum carried him, driving Mariasta onto the ground.

But years of wrestling with Muglio impressed onto the viera instincts- she grabbed Raven's feet in one fluid motion and would have pulled him down if a Paladin didn't weigh more than a little boy of a bangaa. Raven kicked her grip off as Mariasta rose, feinting for a blow to the face...

"Ow..." Mariasta, at last moment, dodged out of Raven's grasp by flipping backwards and swinging her foot upwards... It hit...

Raven grabbed his crotch and fell down... "Owowow..."

Mariasta smiled. "That should teach you not to make up stories about my sister. I bet you're just a cowa-"

Raven leaped to his feet, enraged at the insult. "Well, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE BELOVED LITTLE SISTER OF A RAPIST?" he roared, swinging his fist at her and glancing a blow off her jaw.

Mariasta leapt back, rubbing her jawline. "Ouch!"

She they punched and kicked and fought and tore out patches of each other until...

"Mariasta! What are you doing?" a voice called.

Mother Mystrinia Kaya Leonclaws ran over the knoll.

What she saw shocked her-

They were both bruised and bleeding, and the Paladin had sustained what seemed like a huge kick in the crotch from the way Mariasta was sitting on his back with his arms pinioned in front of her, saying, "GIVE UP! GIVE YOURSELF UP!"

"Mariasta Celali Lireala Leonclaws! What do you think you're doing?" Mystrinia called angrily.

"Mother, he says that Callypso did something really bad-"

Mother was at their sides in an instant, helping Raven up and scolding Mariasta.

"Mariasta, you know you're not allowed to beat up random people. It's unfair. You're trained in fistfighting, he's not a White Monk, what did you expect, and look! Both of you are bleeding and bruised!"

* * *

"Mariasta..." Mystrinia warned.

Mariasta sulked. "It's not fair! He started it!"

"Fine! Both of you, say you're sorry!"

They were both flung over a chair each, nursing wounds and each holding an icepack, Mariasta, to her shoulder, and Raven, to where Mariasta had kicked him and in a very embarresing position-

"I'm sorry," Mariasta said.

"I'm sorry," Raven said too.

"Okay, so what happened?" Mystrinia asked evenly.

"Well..." Raven took a deep breath. "Correct me if I'm mistaken, Dear Lady," he said with a sarcastic pressure on the term Dear Lady, "I was walking here. I asked you where Callypso is-"

"No, you said you wanted to see Callypso for something-"

"I did _not!_ I most definitely did _not!_"

"ANYWAYS!" Mystrinia roared, thumping the table in a way that quelled all arguement. "So then what?"

Mariasta kicked her legs in her chair. "He says that Callypso date-raped his best friend!" she exclaimed unhappily.

Had Mystrinia been a normal mother, there would have been too options:

Option one. She would fall for the "Not-My-Child" syndrome and pounced on Raven with a "How dare you accuse Callypso!"

or

Option two. She would fall on her knees and weep, "I'm such a bad mother... I let this happen to her..."

But Mystrinia was no normal mother... Instead, she considered it evenly.

"Hhmm... Considering... That's possible... I'll talk to her about it."

Mariasta looked unhappy. "Mother, Callypso would never, never..." her voice died in her throat.

"Well, thank you, but I gotta go now," Raven explained.

"Well, don't you two get into anymore trouble!" Mother Mystrinia warned, wagging a finger in both their faces.

"Thank you, my good ladies..." Raven winced as he got up and put the icepack on the table. "I'd better get going now."

"Bye," Mystrinia called. Mariasta scowled.

"Bye too. I hope that you get kicked in the crotch by someone bigger than me," she said before Mystrinia silenced her.

Raven reached the edge of Mystrinia's fields in minutes.

The Paladin saddled his chocobo painfully, and in a matter of minutes, Raven was riding away from Callypso's home...

And back to the clan base.

;' 


	39. Boom!

"NO!" Hejaat screamed, wacking her forehead. Raven just arrived home at late sunset.

The two chocobo chicks aquired from the Languas mission were standing before the two, Gukko holding Star-Rise's feet in place and Hejaat (and a bulging bag of treats) were repeating commands at the two chocobos, mostly "Stand, posture... STAND- NO!"

Le Reau Eslante, the chocobo that Raven recieved, was standing in a mocking version of a war chocobo's stance, looking confused but very proud at the same time. It was strange to see the dandelion-fluff creatures as future war-chocobos... But then again...

Reau was having a better time at it than Rise, who was tumbling and looked like a frail puff on stilts. "Kweh..." he muttered under his breath, swaying dangerously.

"Training coming along?" Raven asked, grinning as Reau took another swing at Hejaat's Red Mage hat.

"Er..." Both brother and sister were now pushing and prodding Rise into formation.

"Just working on stances," Gukko explained.

"Hey!" Hejaat squinted. "Are those _bruises?_"

"HEJAAT!" All of a sudden, Sabina hurtled down the stairs to the makeshift stables, flinging the curtain aside. "THE POT-"

"Oh no! I forgot!" Hejaat exclaimed, hurtling up the stairs after her younger sister.

Once alone, Gukko turned to Raven. "Where were you the whole day?"

Raven grinned sheepishly. "Well, I went to talk to Callypso about the little incid-"

"Raven?" Gukko paled.

Raven held up his hands. "Don't worry, don't worry," he assured him in a soothing tone of voice. "She wasn't home. But I did get beatup by her little sister," Raven rubbed his bruises.

Gukko burst out laughing. "Raven! She's half your size-"

"And kicked me in the you-don't-wanna-know," Raven added glumly.

All of a sudden, the usual cluttering of day-to-day activities were punctuated by a sudden scream and a loud _BOOM!_

"Ack! SABINA! NO! PUT THAT DOWN-" _Boom!_

"Don't worry!" Silverlock's voice. "I got it- AARRRG!"

* * *

Thane was lying unconscious on the couch, and Rosetta, their only Healer aside from Hejaat, was knocked out cold by the lid of a pot. Wesley was splayed across a game board, whose players, Sharon, Shanon, and Messara, were staring at goggle-eyed. 

Hejaat herself was lying upside down on Silverlock, both sporting explosion marks from the pasta sauce.

The Red Mage grinned weakly. "Umm... Let's go to the pub for dinner, shall we?"


	40. Baa!

Getting to the pub actually took a great deal of time, considering that for every time they herded all Gukko's little siblings back together, two wandered away.

Finally, an extremely ticked-off Rosetta, with a well-aimed Protect, Barrier, and a solid steel rod, managed to herd them all together for a little while when disaster struck...

Thane smiled grimly. "This is just like herding sheep-"

"BAAA!" Messara exclaimed.

"BAA!" All of the little children, delighted at Thane's analogy, joined their brother on the sheep campaign. "BAAA!"

Bialese scowled and 'accidently' stomped on Thane's foot as hard as she can. She was about to add arrow to insult when Silverlock fortunately saved Thane from a painful, untidy and very pointy injury.

* * *

By the time they got to the Prancing Chocobo, it was already past sundown, and their hopes of getting an easy early table had diminished. One by one, Hejaat pushed all of the children past the door, patiently explaining to them that "Little Bo Peep" had lost her sheep because they ran away when they reached the fields. 

Gukko held the upon for the gaggle of his little siblings to crowd through chattering and for his clanmates to enter as well. Raven hung back though, stopping beside his friend.

"Any ideas?" Raven cocked his eyebrow, his long eyelashes fluttering like a viera's.

"Eh, about what?"

"The lil' munchkins," Raven said matter-of-factly. "Baa. Baa... Whee, we're going to have so much fun..."

Gukko laughed. "Well, I think that maybe a little taste of the 'munchkins' is exactly what the Benevia Guard Platoon, Templar Sect 21, needs... What do you think?"

Raven smirked. "Yes, after calling us wanna-bes..."

* * *

Oo, foreshadowing! Dun-dun-dun! You're going to see a lot of annoying the Benevia people here... 


End file.
